Elymus curvatusPiper

Virginia wildrye

WFO wfo-0000866161 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Elymus curvatus, photographed by Allan Harris
fig. a Allan Harris, CC0 1.0 / 2018-08-31 / obs. 24081499

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 31 botanical countries

Regions where Elymus curvatus is native: Alberta, British Columbia, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Rhode I., Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming AlbertaBritish ColumbiaColoradoIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyManitobaMassachusettsMinnesotaMissouriMontanaNebraskaNew MexicoNew YorkNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTennesseeUtahWashingtonWisconsinWyoming Rhode I.
Native distribution of Elymus curvatus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Manitoba MAN
Massachusetts MAS
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
North Dakota NDA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 42 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -20.1 °C -14.4 °C -1.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.0 °C 25.6 °C 30.9 °C
Annual rainfall 563 mm 803 mm 1,256 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 61 mm 76 mm 250 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 42 research-grade observations of Elymus curvatus that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 8 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Elymus submuticus (Hook.) Smyth
  • Elymus virginicus f. submuticus (Hook.) R.W.Pohl
  • Elymus virginicus var. arcuatus Alph.Wood
  • Elymus virginicus var. jenkinsii Bowden
  • Elymus virginicus var. submuticus Hook.
  • Terrellia curvata (Piper) Lunell
  • Terrellia virginica f. submutica (Hook.) R.W.Pohl
  • Terrellia virginica var. submutica (Hook.) Lunell

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol ELSU. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.