Elymus multisetus(J.G.Sm.) Burtt Davy

big squirreltail

WFO wfo-0000866512 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Elymus multisetus, photographed by Peter Brastow
fig. a Peter Brastow, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-06-03 / obs. 76706161
Elymus multisetus, photographed by Nina
fig. b Nina, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 39599919
Elymus multisetus, photographed by runcator
fig. c runcator, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 70891762
Elymus multisetus, photographed by Scott Loarie
fig. d Scott Loarie, CC0 1.0 / obs. 112904
Elymus multisetus, photographed by Nicholas Wei
fig. e Nicholas Wei, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 186144614
Elymus multisetus, photographed by D Defreese
fig. f D Defreese, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131369144
Elymus multisetus, photographed by D Defreese
fig. g D Defreese, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131368704
Elymus multisetus, photographed by D Defreese
fig. h D Defreese, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 129674707

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 11 botanical countries

Regions where Elymus multisetus is native: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Mexico Northwest, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming ArizonaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoMexico NorthwestNevadaNew MexicoOregonUtahWashingtonWyoming
Native distribution of Elymus multisetus, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Mexico Northwest MXN
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
Oregon ORE
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
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 257 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 0.5 °C 5.3 °C 6.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.8 °C 25.4 °C 31.5 °C
Annual rainfall 409 mm 803 mm 1,109 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 4 mm 8 mm 11 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 257 research-grade observations of Elymus multisetus 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 7 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 sitanion var. jubatum J.G.Sm.
  • Sitanion breviaristatum J.G.Sm.
  • Sitanion jubatum J.G.Sm.
  • Sitanion multisetum J.G.Sm.
  • Sitanion polyantherix J.G.Sm.
  • Sitanion strictum Elmer
  • Sitanion villosum J.G.Sm.

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. 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.