Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.
Fescue tussock carries an avoid recommendation in the evidence table. The directional source classifies its shoots as highly flammable, providing the verdict used for this grass recorded from New Zealand.
The measurement rows are non-rated laboratory observations of whole plants, leaves, or shoots. They report ignition frequency, temperature, burning duration, consumed biomass, and related quantities, but do not supply another recommendation. The directional basis is therefore limited evidence.
Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions
Fire ecology context
Placement evidence
Evidence regions
Global; New Zealand
Maintenance
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Native range
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.
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.
Avoids (1)
Low Flammability Plants directory — Fire and Emergency New Zealand (plant flammability testing at Lincoln University) · 2026 · original sourcePrimary evidenceLab-testedlineage: lincoln-nz-tree
“High flammability”
High flammability classification.
Listed without a rating (14)Corroboration (14 rows from 1 source)
14 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
Primary study Cui2020a: Cui, X., Paterson, A. M., Wyse, S. V., Alam, M. A., Maurin, K. J. L., Pieper, R., ... Curran, T. J. (2020a). Shoot flammability of vascular plants is phylogenetically conserved and related to habitat fire-proneness and growth form. Nature Plants, 6, 355-359.
Shared row context: plant part whole plant; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Cui2020a-1; sampling ND.
“ignition frequency (%): 100”
FLAMITS record 1393; Ignitability measurement.
“maximum sample temperature (°C): 580.9”
FLAMITS record 1587; Combustibility measurement.
“burning duration (s): 77.1”
FLAMITS record 1781; Sustainability measurement.
“estimated burnt biomass (%): 68.9”
FLAMITS record 1975; Consumability measurement.
Primary study Mason2016: Mason, N. W. H., Frazao, C., Buxton, R. P., & Richardson, S. J. (2016). Fire form and function: evidence for exaptive flammability in the New Zealand flora. Plant Ecology, 217, 645-659.
Shared row context: plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device muffle furnace; site Mason2016-1; sampling summer.
Primary study Padulles2018: Padullés-Cubino, J., Buckley, H. L., Day, N. J., Pieper, R., & Curran, T. J. (2018). Community-level flammability declines over 25 years of plant invasion in grasslands. Journal of Ecology, 106, 1582-1594.
Shared row context: plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Padulles2018-1; sampling 1982 to 2007.
