Index / Search / Leymus cinereus

§1 Plant

Leymus cinereus (Scribn. & Merr.) Á. Löve

vernacular basin wildrye — species · Poaceae

USDA: LECI4
GBIF: 8385939
Rank: species

basin wildrye (Leymus cinereus) — Platephotograph · pam_reschkeCC BY-NC source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Graminoid
Duration: Perennial
Group: Monocot
Family: Poaceae Barnhart
Genus: Leymus

§2a

Native status, by region

CAN Canada Native
L48 Lower 48 States Native

§2b

County-level range

· 52 counties across 6 states/territories

Legend Native · 52 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: Medium
Shade: High
Moisture use: High
Fire: High
Salinity: High
Anaerobic: Medium
CaCO₃: High
Hedging: None

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -43 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 90 min.
Precipitation: 8–20 in/yr
pH range: 5.6–9
Root depth: 20 in min.
Fertility need: High
Soil texture: coarse, medium, fine

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Bunch
Growth rate: Moderate
Lifespan: Long
Mature height: 5 ft
Foliage texture: Coarse
Foliage colour: Green
Porosity (summer): Dense
Porosity (winter): Moderate
Flower colour: Yellow
Fruit colour: Brown
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: None
Toxicity: None

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Early Spring
Seed abundance: Medium
Seed begins: Spring
Seed ends: Summer
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: No
Seeds / lb: 144,000
Propagation: seed

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: Routinely Available
Nursery stock: No
Browse palatability: Low
Graze palatability: High
Palatable, human: No
Protein potential: Medium
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 52 counties across 6 states/territories.

Arizona view state ↗ 4 N ▾

Colorado view state ↗ 19 N ▾

Idaho view state ↗ 20 N ▾

Montana view state ↗ 4 N ▾

Nebraska view state ↗ 3 N ▾

South Dakota view state ↗ 2 N ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/LECI4 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/8385939 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T11:35:19Z