Elymus sibiricusL.

Siberian wildrye

WFO wfo-0000866704 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Elymus sibiricus, photographed by Nina Filippova
fig. a Nina Filippova, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-01-02 / obs. 58920883
Elymus sibiricus, photographed by Repina Tatyana
fig. b Repina Tatyana, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 45219284
Elymus sibiricus, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. c Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 44635921
Elymus sibiricus, photographed by Natalya Ivanova
fig. d Natalya Ivanova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 25106676
Elymus sibiricus, photographed by Andrew Bazdyrev
fig. e Andrew Bazdyrev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112548141
Elymus sibiricus, photographed by Юлия
fig. f Юлия, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156879089
Elymus sibiricus, photographed by Юлия
fig. g Юлия, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 128781339
Elymus sibiricus, photographed by Юлия
fig. h Юлия, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197492795

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
268527
Filed as
Elymus sibiricus L.
Det. by
Unspecified Determiner
Collected
W. G. Dore 1948-07-15
Origin
CA
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 38 botanical countries

Regions where Elymus sibiricus is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Primorye, Qinghai, Sakhalin, Tadzhikistan, Tibet, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, Nepal, West Himalaya, Belarus, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Alaska, British Columbia, Northwest Territories, Yukon AltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaMongoliaPrimoryeQinghaiSakhalinTadzhikistanTibetTuvaWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaNepalWest HimalayaBelarusEast European RussiaNorth European RussiaSouth European RussiaAlaskaBritish ColumbiaNorthwest TerritoriesYukon Korea
Native distribution of Elymus sibiricus, 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
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Kirgizstan KGZ
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Primorye PRM
Qinghai CHQ
Sakhalin SAK
Tadzhikistan TZK
Tibet CHT
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Belarus BLR EUROPE
East European Russia RUE
North European Russia RUN
South European Russia RUS
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
British Columbia BRC
Northwest Territories NWT
Yukon YUK
Nepal NEP ASIA-TROPICAL
West Himalaya WHM

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 810 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -29.4 °C -23.5 °C -16.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 18.1 °C 22.7 °C 24.6 °C
Annual rainfall 234 mm 484 mm 955 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 8 mm 34 mm 131 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 810 research-grade observations of Elymus sibiricus 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 17 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.

  • Bromus dubius Jacq. ex Hook.f.
  • Clinelymus sibiricus (L.) Nevski
  • Elymus krascheninnikovii Roshev.
  • Elymus pendulosus H.J.Hodgs.
  • Elymus praetervisus Steud.
  • Elymus racemosus Poir.
  • Elymus ramosus Desf.
  • Elymus sibiricus var. brachystachys Keng
  • Elymus sibiricus var. erectiusculus L.B.Cai
  • Elymus sibiricus var. gracilis L.B.Cai
  • Elymus sibiricus var. minor Hack. ex Hook.f.
  • Elymus tener L.f.
  • Elymus yesoensis Honda
  • Hordeum adpressum Moench
  • Hordeum sibiricum (L.) Schenck
  • Triticum arctasianum F.Herm.
  • Triticum arktasianum F.Herm.

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.