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Thickspike wheatgrass is rated fire resistant on limited evidence for managed greenstrips, where mowing or grazing helps control fuel buildup.
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service includes Elymus lanceolatus among plant choices for greenstrips in the Great Basin. Its table pairs the grass with a precipitation range of 8 to 16 inches and fine or medium soils. It also gives a seeding depth of one-quarter to one-half inch. These are establishment details for the agency's greenstrip application.
Northern Nevada's extension guidance uses streambank wheatgrass for the same scientific name. Its table lists a native, sod-forming grass with moderate salt or alkali tolerance and a minimum yearly precipitation range of 8 to 10 inches. Keep each source's rainfall range with its regional recommendation when considering a planting site.
Nevada's maintenance instructions explain the continuing work: graze or mow often enough to reduce accumulated fuel. The guide says that allowing fuels to increase sharply reduces a greenstrip's effectiveness. The useful fire-resistant selection is therefore a maintained strip suited to its site, with fuel removal built into its care.
Form
grass
Rated in
Great Basin; Northern Nevada / Great Basin
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Current cited native range in AK, AZ, CA, CO, ID, IL, MI, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, OR, SD, WA, WI, WY.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
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.
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.
Fuel Breaks to Reduce Large Wildfire Impacts in Sagebrush…: common plant material option for a managed greenstrip in sagebrush ecosystems [nrcs-tn66-greenstrip] (with its recommendation)
Greenstrips: Another Tool to Manage Wildfire: common perennial plant used in a maintained northern Nevada greenstrip [unr-fs-97-36-greenstrip] (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.
“Common perennial plants used in greenstrips and selected characteristics important to their establishment and use”
Table 1 row: Streambank Wheatgrass (Elymus lanceolatus). Minimum yearly precipitation: 8-10 inches; salt or alkali tolerance: Moderate; status: N; growth form, flower color, or season: Sodformer; varieties: ‘Sodar’. The fact sheet says greenstrips should be grazed or mown frequently enough to reduce fuel buildup; otherwise their effectiveness is reduced dramatically.