Current native
17
exact source areas
Home / Plants / Grow / Squirreltail Grass
Squirreltail Grass
Elymus elymoides
Your local evidence lens
Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge
A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.
1. Fire evidence and conditions
- Fire evidence
- Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
- Fire-performance conditions
- No test or rating condition is normalized.
- Fire ecology context
- No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
- Placement evidence
- 4 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
- Evidence regions
- Arizona above 3,000 feet / interior Southwest; British Columbia; Global; Great Basin; Great Basin / Intermountain West; Yavapai County, Arizona; southern Idaho / Intermountain
- Maintenance
- No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.
Typed publication scope: 3 scopes across 3 cited fire sources
2. Why this plant is relevant here
- State distribution
- Documented in AZ, CA, CO, DC, ID, IL, KS, KY, MO, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY.
- Native range
- Current cited native range in AZ, CA, CO, ID, KS, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY.
- Introduced / established
- 1 sourced range or established record; set a location to match them. This is not an invasive warning.
- USDA hardiness
- Documented minimum 2b; no upper limit is documented.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
- Legal-list status
- Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
- Seed-list status
- Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
- Reported invasive here
- No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
- Broader regional context
- Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
- Federal context
- Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.
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.
- Form
- grass
- USDA hardiness
- Minimum 2b; upper limit not documented
- Mature height
- ~1.5 ft
- Water need
- low
- Current cited native range
- AZ, CA, CO, ID, KS, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY
- Grows in
- AZ, CA, CO, DC, ID, IL, KS, KY +13
- Rated in
- Arizona above 3,000 feet / interior Southwest; British Columbia; Global; Great Basin +3
- Family
- Poaceae
- Evidence
- 10 cited sources
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 introduced
1
exact source area
Qualified
0
doubtful or extinct source rows
17 native source areas
- Arizona (AZ)
- California (CA)
- Colorado (CO)
- Idaho (ID)
- Kansas (KS)
- Montana (MT)
- North Dakota (ND)
- Nebraska (NE)
- New Mexico (NM)
- Nevada (NV)
- Oklahoma (OK)
- Oregon (OR)
- South Dakota (SD)
- Texas (TX)
- Utah (UT)
- Washington (WA)
- Wyoming (WY)
1 introduced source area
- District of Columbia (DC)
Plant hardiness evidence
-
USDA PLANTS Database — Plant Characteristics
Minimum 2b · no upper limit documented
Where its sources say to plant it
- Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: plantable at 80' from home
- FireSmart BC Plant Program: suitable for HIZ extended zone and beyond
- Fuel Breaks to Reduce Large Wildfire Impacts in Sagebrush…: common plant material option for a managed greenstrip in sagebrush ecosystems
- Forage Kochia Helps Fight Range Fires: species used in a semiarid western rangeland greenstrip
The evidence
Recommends (4)
-
FireSmart BC Plant Program — fire-resistant plant chart
“FireSmart-approved fire-resistant plant”
-
FIREWISE Plant Materials for 3,000 ft. and Higher Elevations (AZ1289)
“listed FIREWISE plant material”
Listed among fire-resistant plant materials for Arizona above 3,000 feet.
-
“Common plant material options for greenstrips.”
Appendix B row: Bottlebrush Squirreltail (Elymus elymoides). Origin: Native; lifeform: Bunchgrass; relative height: Low; seedling vigor: Med.; longevity: Long. Precipitation zone: 8-18 in; soil texture: medium and coarse; seeds/lb: 220,000; single-species drill seeding rate: 7 lb/ac; seeding depth: 1/4-1/2 in. Recommended releases: Fish Creek, Toe Jam Creek, Rattlesnake, Pueblo, Wapiti, Pleasant Valley, Antelope Creek.
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Forage Kochia Helps Fight Range Fires
“Species frequently used in greenstrips.”
Table 1 row: bottlebrush squirreltail — Elymus elymoides (Raf.) Swezey. The article says these are species frequently used in greenstrips; it does not report a separate burn result for this row.
Avoids (2)
-
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database
“fire-resistance score 3 of 10”
-
Fire-Resistant and Fire-Prone Plants Common to Yavapai County (Bulletin 34)
“Fire-Prone Plants”
Listed as Squirreltail grass — Elymus elymoides. The bulletin says fire-resistant plants tend to resist ignition when irrigated and maintained, while fire-prone plants may ignite readily and burn intensely.
Listed without a rating (4)
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FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database
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“time to flaming (s): 2.598”
FLAMITS record 17354; Ignitability measurement; plant part whole plant; fuel live; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Gao2018-1; sampling june to august 2016. Primary study Gao2018: Gao, X., & Schwilk, D. W. (2018). Grass Canopy Architecture Influences Temperature Exposure at Soil Surface. Fire 1, 35.
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“flaming duration (s): 48.74533333”
FLAMITS record 17355; Sustainability measurement; plant part whole plant; fuel live; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Gao2018-1; sampling june to august 2016. Primary study Gao2018: Gao, X., & Schwilk, D. W. (2018). Grass Canopy Architecture Influences Temperature Exposure at Soil Surface. Fire 1, 35.
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“smouldering duration (s): 216.2646667”
FLAMITS record 17356; Sustainability measurement; plant part whole plant; fuel live; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Gao2018-1; sampling june to august 2016. Primary study Gao2018: Gao, X., & Schwilk, D. W. (2018). Grass Canopy Architecture Influences Temperature Exposure at Soil Surface. Fire 1, 35.
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“flame height (cm): 99.2”
FLAMITS record 17357; Combustibility measurement; plant part whole plant; fuel live; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Gao2018-1; sampling june to august 2016. Primary study Gao2018: Gao, X., & Schwilk, D. W. (2018). Grass Canopy Architecture Influences Temperature Exposure at Soil Surface. Fire 1, 35.
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