Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Basket of gold is rated fire resistant, with agreement across six assessments from the Pacific Northwest, Idaho, British Columbia, and Michigan.
Oregon State, Washington State, the University of Idaho, Washington’s Department of Natural Resources, FireSmart BC, and Michigan State all recommend it as fire resistant. These published assessments include expert plant lists, compiled guidance, and an Idaho field-trial database. Idaho Firewise gives basket of gold 8 of 10, placing it within the source’s recommended band of 8 to 10.
Basket of gold is a groundcover in the Brassicaceae family. The joint extension guidance places it in USDA zones 3a through 7b. It has been introduced in nine states, including California, Massachusetts, and Maryland, and has been flagged as invasive in two jurisdictions, so local restrictions remain a separate consideration from fire resistance.
Fire resistance does not remove the need for care. Oregon State says most plants in its Oregon guidance require some irrigation during dry summer months and must be kept healthy. Taken together, the consistent regional recommendations and Idaho’s 8-of-10 score make basket of gold a well-supported fire-resistant choice where it is permitted and properly maintained.
Form
groundcover
Rated in
British Columbia; Colorado / Rocky Mountain Front Range; Michigan / Great Lakes; OR/WA/ID +4
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Colorado State University Extension and the Colorado State Forest Service publish Fact Sheet 6.305 for Colorado's WUI and varied ecosystems. FireApproved exposes all 114 exact source owners at Colorado publication scope while retaining score, elevation, water, and Idaho-carrier lineage. Publication scope is not suitability for every Colorado site or zone.
Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08
The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.
Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.
The October 2023 joint Pacific Northwest Extension publication explicitly names Oregon, Washington, and Idaho and publishes more than 150 plant profiles. FireApproved has normalized 155 exact plant records from the source; publication scope does not assert that every listed plant suits every site within the three states.
Eastern Washington (WA footprint); partial normalized coverage
Washington DNR publishes the guide for Eastern Washington and says it compiles plants from other Firewise documents that are likely to thrive there. FireApproved publishes 46 exact owners only as eastern Washington context. The rows are corroborative, not empirical or statewide.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in CO, CT, ID, MA, MI, NH, NY, OH, OR, UT, VA, VT, WA.
Native range
Introduced / established
9 sourced range or established records. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
Documented range 3–7.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
2 ecological invasive reports.
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Native and introduced range evidence
These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and
introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval.
Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.
The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: plantable at 30' from home [Idaho minimum planting distance] (with its recommendation)
FireSmart BC Plant Program: suitable for HIZ intermediate zone (10-30 m) [FireSmart BC Home Ignition Zone] (with its recommendation)
Fire-Resistant Plants for Oregon Home Landscapes: Oregon [osu-frn6-oregon-regions] (with its recommendation)
Ignition-Resistant Landscape Plants: suitable for defensible-space zones 1-2 (score 8+) [CSU defensible-space zone] (with its recommendation)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
“Fire-Resistant Plant Materials for Oregon”
· condition: green
Aurinia saxatilis (Basket-of-Gold) is listed under “Perennials 18 inches or taller”. The guide says most listed plants require some irrigation during Oregon's dry summer months and must be maintained in a healthy condition.
“Choose the right groundcover plants for your fire-resistant landscape”
· original source
The Basket-of-gold profile prints Aurinia saxatilis. The gallery points to PNW 590 for complete details.
Ignition-Resistant Landscape Plants (Fact Sheet 6.305) — Colorado State University Extension / Colorado State Forest Service (Wildfire Mitigation Series) · 2025 · original sourcePrimary evidenceField programlineage: idaho-tree resolves to Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database
“ignitability score 8 of 10”
· score 8 (idaho-0-10)
CSU 6.305 table lists Aurinia saxatilis (basket of gold) with the preserved ignitability score.
