Tridens flavus (L.) Hitchc.

vernacular purpletop tridens — species · Poaceae

USDA: TRFL2
GBIF: 5289648
Rank: species

purpletop tridens (Tridens flavus) — Platephotograph · Mary KeimCC BY-NC-SA source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

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

§2a

Native status, by region

CAN Canada Introduced
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: High
Shade: High
Moisture use: Low
Fire: High
Salinity: None
Anaerobic: Low
CaCO₃: Low
Hedging: None

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -23 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 150 min.
Precipitation: 17–60 in/yr
pH range: 4.5–6.5
Root depth: 10 in min.
Fertility need: Low
Soil texture: coarse, medium, fine

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Bunch
Growth rate: Moderate
Lifespan: Short
Mature height: 2.5 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 Summer
Seed abundance: Medium
Seed begins: Summer
Seed ends: Fall
Spread rate: Rapid
Stratify: No
Seeds / lb: 465,000
Propagation: seed

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: Contracting Only
Nursery stock: No
Browse palatability: High
Graze palatability: High
Palatable, human: No
Protein potential: Medium
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 2 counties across 1 state.

Rhode Island view state ↗ 2 N ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

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

plants.usda.gov/TRFL2 ↗

GBIF Backbone

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

gbif.org/species/5289648 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25

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