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Russian Wildrye
Psathrostachys juncea
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
- Fire-resistant — 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
- 2 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
- Evidence regions
- Great Basin; Northern Nevada / Great Basin
- Maintenance
- No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
- State distribution
- Documented in AK, AZ, CO, MN, MT, ND, NE, NM, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY.
- Native range
- No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
- Introduced / established
- No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
- USDA hardiness
- Documented minimum 3a; 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
- 2 ecological invasive reports; set a location to distinguish exact from regional context.
- 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 3a; upper limit not documented
- Mature height
- ~3 ft
- Water need
- low
- Grows in
- AK, AZ, CO, MN, MT, ND, NE, NM +5
- Rated in
- Great Basin; Northern Nevada / Great Basin
- Family
- Poaceae
- Evidence
- 2 cited sources
Plant hardiness evidence
-
USDA PLANTS Database — Plant Characteristics
Minimum 3a · no upper limit documented
Where its sources say to plant it
- Fuel Breaks to Reduce Large Wildfire Impacts in Sagebrush…: common plant material option for a managed greenstrip in sagebrush ecosystems
- Greenstrips: Another Tool to Manage Wildfire: common perennial plant used in a maintained northern Nevada greenstrip
The evidence
Recommends (2)
-
“Common plant material options for greenstrips.”
Appendix B row: Russian Wildrye (Psathrostachys juncea). Origin: Introduced; lifeform: Bunchgrass; relative height: Tall; seedling vigor: Low; longevity: Long. Precipitation zone: 8-12 in; soil texture: fine and medium; seeds/lb: 170,000; single-species drill seeding rate: 6 lb/ac; seeding depth: 0-1/4 in. Recommended releases: Bozoisky II, Bozoisky Select. The table prints “Psathrostachys”; the exact accepted GBIF spelling is “Psathyrostachys juncea” (GBIF key 2705042).
-
Greenstrips: Another Tool to Manage Wildfire (Fact Sheet 97-36)
“Common perennial plants used in greenstrips and selected characteristics important to their establishment and use”
Table 1 row: Russian Wildrye (Psathyrostachys juncea). Minimum yearly precipitation: 10-12 inches; salt or alkali tolerance: Moderate / High; status: I; growth form, flower color, or season: Bunch; varieties: ‘Bozoiski Select’, ‘Vinall’. The fact sheet says greenstrips should be grazed or mown frequently enough to reduce fuel buildup; otherwise their effectiveness is reduced dramatically.