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§1 Plant

Secale cereale L.

vernacular cereal rye — species · Poaceae

USDA
SECE
GBIF
2705966
Rank
species
cereal rye (Secale cereale)
Platephotograph · Tara BaumanCC BY-NC source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Habit and range

Growth habit
Graminoid
Duration
Annual
Group
Monocot
Family
Poaceae Barnhart
Genus
Secale
§2a

Native status, by region

  • AK Alaska Introduced
  • CAN Canada Introduced
  • GL Greenland Introduced
  • L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
§2b

County-level range

· 391 counties across 32 states/territories
Legend Native · 0 Introduced · 391 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
None
Salinity
Medium
Anaerobic
None
CaCO₃
Medium
Hedging
None
§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance
-33 °F minimum
Frost-free days
110 min.
Precipitation
8–50 in/yr
pH range
4.5–8.2
Root depth
8 in min.
Fertility need
Medium
Soil texture
coarse, medium
§3c

Form & growth

Growth form
Bunch
Growth rate
Rapid
Mature height
3.5 ft
Foliage texture
Fine
Foliage colour
Green
Porosity (summer)
Moderate
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
High
Seed begins
Spring
Seed ends
Summer
Spread rate
Slow
Stratify
No
Seeds / lb
18,160
Propagation
seed
§3e

Use & availability

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

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 391 counties across 32 states/territories.

Alabama view state ↗ 8 I ▾
Alaska view state ↗ 2 I ▾
Arizona view state ↗ 5 I ▾
Arkansas view state ↗ 1 I ▾
District of Columbia view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Florida view state ↗ 15 I ▾
Georgia view state ↗ 7 I ▾
Illinois view state ↗ 80 I ▾
Indiana view state ↗ 3 I ▾
Iowa view state ↗ 2 I ▾
Kansas view state ↗ 2 I ▾
Kentucky view state ↗ 9 I ▾
Louisiana view state ↗ 15 I ▾
Maine view state ↗ 8 I ▾
Massachusetts view state ↗ 13 I ▾
Michigan view state ↗ 21 I ▾
Minnesota view state ↗ 22 I ▾
Mississippi view state ↗ 4 I ▾
Missouri view state ↗ 15 I ▾
Montana view state ↗ 12 I ▾
New Hampshire view state ↗ 2 I ▾
New Jersey view state ↗ 11 I ▾
New York view state ↗ 30 I ▾
North Carolina view state ↗ 13 I ▾
Ohio view state ↗ 5 I ▾
Pennsylvania view state ↗ 23 I ▾
Rhode Island view state ↗ 3 I ▾
South Carolina view state ↗ 2 I ▾
Tennessee view state ↗ 22 I ▾
Vermont view state ↗ 6 I ▾
Virginia view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Wisconsin view state ↗ 28 I ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

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

plants.usda.gov/SECE ↗

GBIF Backbone

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

gbif.org/species/2705966 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T08:39:52Z