Puccinellia phryganodes(Trin.) Scribn. & Merr.

creeping alkaligrass

WFO wfo-0000895457 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 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.

Puccinellia phryganodes, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. a Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-07-31 / obs. 49749026
Puccinellia phryganodes, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. b Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 24095410
Puccinellia phryganodes, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. c Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 26246176
Puccinellia phryganodes, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. d Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 24095414
Puccinellia phryganodes, photographed by Ida B D Jacobsen
fig. e Ida B D Jacobsen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168384706

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 23 botanical countries

Regions where Puccinellia phryganodes is native: Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Sakhalin, West Siberia, Yakutiya, Finland, North European Russia, Norway, Svalbard, Alaska, Aleutian Is., Greenland, Labrador, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Yukon KamchatkaKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanSakhalinWest SiberiaYakutiyaFinlandNorth European RussiaNorwaySvalbardAlaskaGreenlandLabradorManitobaNew BrunswickNewfoundlandNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioQuébecYukon
Native distribution of Puccinellia phryganodes, 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
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Aleutian Is. ALU
Greenland GNL
Labrador LAB
Manitoba MAN
New Brunswick NBR
Newfoundland NFL
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Yukon YUK
Kamchatka KAM ASIA-TEMPERATE
Khabarovsk KHA
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Sakhalin SAK
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Finland FIN EUROPE
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
Svalbard SVA

Not drawn on the map: Aleutian Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Also published as 26 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.

  • Atropis geniculata V.I.Krecz.
  • Atropis phryganodes (Trin.) Steffen
  • Atropis vilfoidea (Andersson ex Malme) K.Richt.
  • Catabrosa vilfoidea Andersson ex Malme
  • Glyceria phryganodes (Trin.) Fr.
  • Glyceria vilfoidea (Andersson ex Malme) Th.Fr.
  • Phippsia neoarctica Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Phippsia phryganodes (Trin.) Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Phippsia vilfoidea (Andersson ex Malme) Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Phippsia vilfoidea subsp. beringensis Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Phippsia vilfoidea subsp. sibirica (Hadac ex Á.Löve) Á.Löve & D.Löve
  • Poa geniculata Krecz.
  • Poa phryganodes Trin.
  • Puccinellia ambigua T.J.Sørensen
  • Puccinellia asiatica Czerep.
  • Puccinellia distans f. ambigua (T.J.Sørensen) B.Boivin
  • Puccinellia geniculata (V.I.Krecz.) Hultén
  • Puccinellia phryganodes subsp. asiatica (Hadac ex Á.Löve) Tzvelev
  • Puccinellia phryganodes subsp. geniculata (V.I.Krecz.) Tzvelev
  • Puccinellia phryganodes subsp. neoarctica (Á.Löve & D.Löve) Elven
  • Puccinellia phryganodes subsp. phryganodes
  • Puccinellia phryganodes subsp. sibirica (Hadac ex Á.Löve) Elven
  • Puccinellia phryganodes subsp. vilfoidea (Andersson) Tzvelev
  • Puccinellia vilfoidea (Andersson ex Malme) Á.Löve & D.Löve

and 2 more.

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.