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tufted hairgrass

Deschampsia cespitosa · Poaceae · all Deschampsia records · Wikipedia

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Tufted hairgrass has native and introduced range shown in range evidence. One ecological invasive report supplies status context, and the evidence table marks the Deschampsia cespitosa pack limited evidence.

The distribution split, status report, and pack-depth notice remain independent. The related plants and the genus index permit comparison without turning either range category into fire support. On cespitosa, a return to the source table keeps the limited pack inspectable, while the range route retains both cited categories in its own section. The ecological entry remains status context throughout those comparisons.

Form
grass
Mature height
~3 ft
Water need
high
Rated in
Lake Tahoe Basin, Nevada and California
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Placement evidence
1 source placement record; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
Lake Tahoe Basin, Nevada and California
Typed publication scope: 1 scope across 1 cited fire source

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MT, NC, ND, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SD, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.
Native range
Current cited native range in AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, ID, IL, IN, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MT, NC, ND, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SD, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.
Introduced / established
2 sourced range or established records. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 3a; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

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.

Current native

35

exact source areas

Current introduced

1

exact source area

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

35 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Aleutian Is. (AK)
  • Alaska (AK)
  • Arizona (AZ)
  • California (CA)
  • Colorado (CO)
  • Connecticut (CT)
  • Idaho (ID)
  • Illinois (IL)
  • Indiana (IN)
  • Kentucky (KY)
  • Massachusetts (MA)
  • Maryland (MD)
  • Maine (ME)
  • Michigan (MI)
  • Minnesota (MN)
  • Montana (MT)
  • North Carolina (NC)
  • North Dakota (ND)
  • New Hampshire (NH)
  • New Jersey (NJ)
  • New Mexico (NM)
  • Nevada (NV)
  • New York (NY)
  • Ohio (OH)
  • Oregon (OR)
  • Pennsylvania (PA)
  • Rhode I. (RI)
  • South Dakota (SD)
  • Utah (UT)
  • Virginia (VA)
  • Vermont (VT)
  • Washington (WA)
  • Wisconsin (WI)
  • West Virginia (WV)
  • Wyoming (WY)
1 introduced source area · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Hawaii (HI)

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.

Where its sources say to plant it

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.

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.

Recommends (1)

Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)

  • Home Landscaping Guide for Lake Tahoe and Vicinity (Ed. Bulletin 06-01) — Nevada Division of Forestry / University of Nevada Cooperative Extension · Bulletin 06-01 (2006) · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: unr-tree

    “low — Tufted hairgrass — Deschampsia cespitosa”

    Table 1's Fire Hazard column prints “low” for this taxon. The guide calls the rating a rough estimate of potential flammability, not a result of scientific trials. Its footnote says plants that turn brown often become high fire hazards and tells readers to mow grasses and forbs when they begin to turn brown.

Fire-resistant grasss instead

fox sedge
Carex vulpinoidea tall fescue
Festuca arundinacea tall fescue
Lolium arundinaceum prairie cordgrass
Spartina pectinata woolgrass
Scirpus cyperinus hard fescue
Festuca cinerea
Same genus in the directory · the Deschampsia group page

Last verified 2026-08-25. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Deschampsia cespitosa (Tufted hairgrass). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/deschampsia-cespitosa/. Last verified 2026-08-25.