Index / Search / Elymus riparius

§1 Plant

Elymus riparius Wiegand

vernacular riverbank wildrye — species · Poaceae


USDA
ELRI
GBIF
5290259
Rank
species
riverbank wildrye (Elymus riparius)
Platephotograph · whinaemCC BY-NC source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Habit and range

Growth habit
Graminoid
Duration
Perennial
Group
Monocot
Family
Poaceae Barnhart
Genus
Elymus
§2a

Native status, by region

  • CAN Canada Native
  • L48 Lower 48 States Native
§2b

County-level range

· 2 counties across 1 state
Legend Native · 2 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought
Low
Shade
Low
Moisture use
High
Fire
High
Salinity
None
Anaerobic
Medium
CaCO₃
Medium
Hedging
None
§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance
-33 °F minimum
Frost-free days
100 min.
Precipitation
24–55 in/yr
pH range
4.5–7.2
Root depth
10 in min.
Fertility need
Medium
Soil texture
coarse, medium, fine
§3c

Form & growth

Growth form
Bunch
Growth rate
Moderate
Lifespan
Moderate
Mature height
4.5 ft
Foliage texture
Coarse
Foliage colour
Dark Green
Porosity (summer)
Moderate
Porosity (winter)
Porous
Flower colour
Yellow
Fruit colour
Brown
Fire resistant
No
N fixation
None
Toxicity
None
§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period
Mid Summer
Seed abundance
Medium
Seed begins
Summer
Seed ends
Fall
Spread rate
Moderate
Stratify
No
Seeds / lb
125,000
Propagation
seed
§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability
Routinely Available
Nursery stock
No
Palatable, human
No
Lumber
No
Christmas tree
No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 2 counties across 1 state.


§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

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

plants.usda.gov/ELRI ↗

GBIF Backbone

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

gbif.org/species/5290259 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25

fetched 2026-05-25T18:27:19Z