Puccinellia nuttalliana (Schult.) Hitchc.

vernacular Nuttall's alkaligrass — species · Poaceae

USDA: PUNU2
GBIF: 2704691
Rank: species

Nuttall's alkaligrass (Puccinellia nuttalliana) — Platephotograph · Christian SchwarzCC BY-NC source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

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

§2a

Native status, by region

AK Alaska Native
CAN Canada Native
GL Greenland Native
L48 Lower 48 States Native

§2b

County-level range

· 10 counties across 1 state

Legend Native · 10 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

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

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -38 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 110 min.
Precipitation: 24–45 in/yr
pH range: 6.5–8.5
Root depth: 10 in min.
Fertility need: Low
Soil texture: coarse, medium, fine

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Rhizomatous
Growth rate: Slow
Lifespan: Short
Mature height: 0.8 ft
Foliage texture: Medium
Foliage colour: 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: Late Spring
Seed abundance: Low
Seed begins: Summer
Seed ends: Summer
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: No
Seeds / lb: 2,108,000
Propagation: seed, container, bulb, sprigs

§3e

Use & availability

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

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 10 counties across 1 state.

Montana view state ↗ 10 N ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

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

plants.usda.gov/PUNU2 ↗

GBIF Backbone

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

gbif.org/species/2704691 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25

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