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§1 Plant

Bromus catharticus Vahl

vernacular rescuegrass — species · Poaceae

USDA
BRCA6
GBIF
2703723
Rank
species
rescuegrass (Bromus catharticus)
Platephotograph · Lijin Huang (紫楝)CC BY-NC source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Habit and range

Growth habit
Graminoid
Duration
Annual, Perennial
Group
Monocot
Family
Poaceae Barnhart
Genus
Bromus
§2a

Native status, by region

  • CAN Canada Introduced
  • HI Hawaii Introduced
  • L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
  • PB Pacific Basin (except Hawaii) Introduced
§2b

County-level range

· 545 counties across 30 states/territories
Legend Native · 0 Introduced · 545 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
High
Fire
Low
Salinity
Medium
Anaerobic
None
CaCO₃
High
Hedging
None
§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance
7 °F minimum
Frost-free days
80 min.
Precipitation
18–28 in/yr
pH range
5.5–8
Root depth
12 in min.
Fertility need
High
Soil texture
coarse, medium
§3c

Form & growth

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

Reproduction

Bloom period
Early Spring
Seed abundance
High
Seed begins
Spring
Seed ends
Spring
Spread rate
Rapid
Stratify
No
Seeds / lb
51,680
Propagation
seed
§3e

Use & availability

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

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 545 counties across 30 states/territories.

Alabama view state ↗ 11 I ▾
Arizona view state ↗ 13 I ▾
Arkansas view state ↗ 17 I ▾
California view state ↗ 27 I ▾
Colorado view state ↗ 1 I ▾
District of Columbia view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Florida view state ↗ 21 I ▾
Georgia view state ↗ 17 I ▾
Hawaii view state ↗ 4 I ▾
Illinois view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Kansas view state ↗ 21 I ▾
Kentucky view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Louisiana view state ↗ 64 I ▾
Minnesota view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Mississippi view state ↗ 27 I ▾
Missouri view state ↗ 9 I ▾
Nevada view state ↗ 10 I ▾
New Jersey view state ↗ 1 I ▾
New Mexico view state ↗ 18 I ▾
New York view state ↗ 1 I ▾
North Carolina view state ↗ 39 I ▾
North Dakota view state ↗ 2 I ▾
Oklahoma view state ↗ 33 I ▾
Oregon view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Pennsylvania view state ↗ 1 I ▾
South Carolina view state ↗ 33 I ▾
Tennessee view state ↗ 5 I ▾
Texas view state ↗ 132 I ▾
Utah view state ↗ 8 I ▾
Virginia view state ↗ 25 I ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

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

plants.usda.gov/BRCA6 ↗

GBIF Backbone

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

gbif.org/species/2703723 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T20:46:58Z