Flowers and Plants
Gardening Guides
Basin Wildrye Is a Tough Native Bunchgrass With a Big Impact
Leymus cinereus, a tall cool-season bunchgrass, brings rugged beauty and wildlife shelter to gardens in the western U.S.
Basin wildrye (Leymus cinereus) stands out in the landscape with its tall and wide form, long leaves and upright seed stalks. This big bunchgrass — it grows as tall as 10 feet and as wide as 4 — thrives in difficult conditions, including clay, alkaline soils and summer droughts. Green leaves emerge on stiff, upright stems in early spring, and the wide leaf blades hold their summer-green color through summer. In fall the flower stalks turn straw gold, with individual leaves turning from blue-green to reddish to straw. This large grass holds its form through winter, even in deep snow, adding interest to the winter garden and providing a windbreak for wildlife and people alike. The large seeds feed quail and other seed-eating birds in fall and winter.
Benefits and tolerances: Tolerates summer heat and drought; thrives in deep, finely textured and even slightly salty soils; serves as a windbreak and provides winter interest in the garden; spring foliage is highly nutritious and grazed by large wildlife, including elk, pronghorn and deer, as well as jackrabbits and smaller grazers; seeds are important winter food for quail and other upland game birds, as well as small wildlife; birds and small wildlife nest or shelter in thick bunches; hollow stems provide nest cavities for some solitary bees
Seasonal interest: Green leaves emerge early in spring and hold their color through summer; tall and erect flower spikes emerge above leaves in July and persist through winter; leaf blades turn blue-green, straw yellow or even reddish in fall
When to plant: Early spring in clay soils; fall in well-drained soils
Seasonal interest: Green leaves emerge early in spring and hold their color through summer; tall and erect flower spikes emerge above leaves in July and persist through winter; leaf blades turn blue-green, straw yellow or even reddish in fall
When to plant: Early spring in clay soils; fall in well-drained soils
Distinguishing traits. This long-lived bunchgrass stands out, with its relatively wide leaf blades that can reach from 15 inches to more than 2 feet long and nearly an inch wide. Additionally, it forms a tight clump of tall, upright stems that can reach from 6 feet to 10 feet tall, if grown in exceptionally deep and well-watered soil. The leaves turn green early in spring with moisture from snowmelt and rains.
The flower stalks, with their conspicuous large seeds, appear in mid-July and persist into winter. The densely packed flower stalks reach from 4 inches to nearly a foot tall and contain several dozen nodes (buds) on each. Each bud sprouts two to seven spikelets, and each spikelet contains five to seven florets.
The common name wildrye describes the flower stalk’s resemblance to that of rye, the domestic grain used in flour and distilled alcoholic drinks.
Basin wildrye seeds may have been used as a grain by the Paiute peoples in the Great Basin.
The flower stalks, with their conspicuous large seeds, appear in mid-July and persist into winter. The densely packed flower stalks reach from 4 inches to nearly a foot tall and contain several dozen nodes (buds) on each. Each bud sprouts two to seven spikelets, and each spikelet contains five to seven florets.
The common name wildrye describes the flower stalk’s resemblance to that of rye, the domestic grain used in flour and distilled alcoholic drinks.
Basin wildrye seeds may have been used as a grain by the Paiute peoples in the Great Basin.
Basin wildrye grows behind rubber rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) and in front of big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata).
How to use it. Basin wildrye stands out as an ornamental grass with its wide and tall upright form. It’s an excellent drought-tolerant alternative to invasive pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana). Plant it at the back of a border, in clumps with shrubs and mounding flowers, as a large specimen, as a windbreak or even as a perennial bunchgrass “hedge.”
Basin wildrye’s network of fine, fibrous roots makes it excellent for erosion control in deep and fine soils. The roots reach 3 to 6 feet deep and up to 3½ feet wide. It is also used as a reclamation grass in soils too saline or alkaline for other plants to survive.
Mix basin wildrye with silvery-leaved native shrubs including rubber rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) and big sagebrush (Seriphidium tridentatum), and the subshrub purple sage (Salvia dorrii). It also goes well with mounding flowers like Colorado four o’clock (Mirabilis multiflora) and tufted evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa).
How to use it. Basin wildrye stands out as an ornamental grass with its wide and tall upright form. It’s an excellent drought-tolerant alternative to invasive pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana). Plant it at the back of a border, in clumps with shrubs and mounding flowers, as a large specimen, as a windbreak or even as a perennial bunchgrass “hedge.”
Basin wildrye’s network of fine, fibrous roots makes it excellent for erosion control in deep and fine soils. The roots reach 3 to 6 feet deep and up to 3½ feet wide. It is also used as a reclamation grass in soils too saline or alkaline for other plants to survive.
Mix basin wildrye with silvery-leaved native shrubs including rubber rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) and big sagebrush (Seriphidium tridentatum), and the subshrub purple sage (Salvia dorrii). It also goes well with mounding flowers like Colorado four o’clock (Mirabilis multiflora) and tufted evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa).
Planting notes. Basin wildrye seeds germinate most readily in spring and need additional moisture to make it through their first summer, after which they’re quite drought-tolerant. Like most natives, this grass prefers unamended soil and no fertilizer and, other than spring moisture, needs no irrigation. Clumps will “tiller” (spread by underground stems) weakly from the base, so plant this grass where it has space to grow to a sizable clump.
Leave the seed stalks on over the winter for architectural interest; in late winter or early spring, cut stems to no shorter than a foot tall — cutting back more will damage the growing tips, and the grass won’t resprout.
Cultivars
Try This Native Alternative to Mexican Feather Grass
Add Softness, Light and Movement With Ornamental Grasses
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Leave the seed stalks on over the winter for architectural interest; in late winter or early spring, cut stems to no shorter than a foot tall — cutting back more will damage the growing tips, and the grass won’t resprout.
Cultivars
- ‘Magnar’, from the USDA’s Aberdeen Plant Materials Center, in Idaho, is known for its very blue-green leaves and tolerance for deep winter snows. ‘Magnar’ grows best in deep soils with more than 8 inches of annual precipitation, received mostly in winter and early spring.
- ‘Trailhead’, from eastern Montana, is tolerant of slightly saline soils, higher summer temperatures and longer summer droughts. Its foliage is deep green and it stays nutritious into winter.
Try This Native Alternative to Mexican Feather Grass
Add Softness, Light and Movement With Ornamental Grasses
See more Great Design Plants
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Botanical name: Leymus cinereus
Common names: Basin wildrye, Great Basin wildrye, giant wildrye
Origin: Native across western North America, from Saskatchewan west to British Columbia, south to California, northern Arizona and New Mexico, and east to South Dakota and Minnesota
Where it will grow: Hardy to minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 32 degrees Celsius (USDA zones 4 to 9; find your zone)
Water requirement: Needs spring moisture; tolerates summer drought
Light requirement: Full sun
Mature size: 3 to 10 feet tall and 4 feet wide