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Greene's mountain ash has supportive Firewise listings, but they do not yet establish a clear fire-resistance verdict.
For Sorbus scopulina, FireSmart BC pairs fire-resistant plant approval with a flag calling for more research. Fremont County Firewise lists western mountain ash among its Firewise large shrubs and trees, and NFPA Firewise Communities includes it among fire-resistive plants suitable for landscaping in the Black Hills. All three compiled sources therefore place the shrub in favorable planting guidance.
The qualification matters because FireSmart BC’s research flag prevents its approval from being read as settled. Fremont County describes its listed Firewise plants as generally low-growing, low-debris, and relatively moist, but offers no comparative classes or adverse list. NFPA likewise identifies its entries as fire-resistive without giving a comparative score or an avoid category. These listings support consideration, but they do not show how Greene’s mountain ash performs against other plants.
Greene’s mountain ash belongs to the rose family; this shrub reaches about 12 feet at maturity and has moderate water needs. Its inclusion in guidance from British Columbia, Fremont County in Wyoming, and the Black Hills in South Dakota is encouraging, but the need-for-research flag leaves its fire resistance unresolved rather than firmly established.
Form
shrub
Mature height
~12 ft
Water need
moderate
Rated in
Black Hills, South Dakota; British Columbia; Fremont County, Wyoming
On this lot
1. Fire evidence and conditions
Fire evidence
Mixed evidence — location does not change the cited classification.
Black Hills (SD footprint); partial normalized coverage
The page explicitly limits itself to the Black Hills, and NFPA Firewise's archived 2006 plant-list index files it under South Dakota. FireApproved publishes 47 exact genus or species owners from 48 printed rows. This is bounded Black Hills context, not statewide South Dakota coverage or a finding that a plant suits a particular site.
Fremont County (WY footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2011-02-25
The source identifies itself as the Fremont County Firewise Plant List. FireApproved publishes its 92 exact source owners as Fremont County regional context. No methodology, current county endorsement, statewide Wyoming scope, or site-specific suitability is inferred.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in AK, AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, ND, NM, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY.
Native range
Current cited native range in AK, AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY.
Introduced / established
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 6b; no upper limit is documented.
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.
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.
Source location: PlantCharacteristics record 91770, Temperature, Minimum (°F).
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.
Firewise Plant Material for the Black Hills: Large shrubs & trees [black-hills-plant-form-table] (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.
“Fremont County Firewise Plant List — Sorbus scopulina — Western Mountain Ash”
Listed in the source's Large Shrubs and Trees section; the page describes its listed Firewise plants as generally low-growing, low-debris, and relatively moist.
