Thinopyrum ponticum (Podp.) Z.-W. Liu & R.-C. Wang

vernacular tall wheatgrass — species · Poaceae

USDA: THPO7
GBIF: 10986555 syn.
Rank: species

tall wheatgrass (Thinopyrum ponticum) — Platephotograph · Michael KeoghCC BY-NC-SA source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

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

§2a

Native status, by region

CAN Canada Introduced
L48 Lower 48 States Introduced

§2b

County-level range

· 12 counties across 1 state

Legend Native · 0 Introduced · 12 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: Medium
Fire: Medium
Salinity: High
Anaerobic: Low
CaCO₃: High
Hedging: None

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -38 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 90 min.
Precipitation: 10–28 in/yr
pH range: 6.6–10
Root depth: 20 in min.
Fertility need: Medium
Soil texture: coarse, medium, fine

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Bunch
Growth rate: Rapid
Lifespan: Moderate
Mature height: 5 ft
Foliage texture: Coarse
Foliage colour: Gray-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 Summer
Seed abundance: High
Seed begins: Summer
Seed ends: Summer
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: No
Seeds / lb: 75,320
Propagation: seed

§3e

Use & availability

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

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 12 counties across 1 state.

Montana view state ↗ 12 I ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

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

plants.usda.gov/THPO7 ↗

GBIF Backbone

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

gbif.org/species/10986555 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25

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