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Giant Wildrye
Elymus condensatus
  
About Giant Wildrye (Elymus condensatus) 45 Nurseries Carry This Plant Elymus condensatus (syn. Leymus condensatus) is a wild rye grass native to California and northern Mexico. Its common name is giant wildrye. It grows in bunches or clumps, stays green all year, and has a distinctive silver blue foliage. It is drought tolerant, growing in coastal sage scrub, chaparral, southern oak woodland, foothill woodland, and Joshua tree woodlands, rarely in wetlands. It spreads by rhizomes but not rapidly and can be easily contained. It often hybridizes with Leymus triticoides, producing the common hybrid grass Leymus x multiflorus. The cultivar 'Canyon Prince' from the Channel Islands is cultivated as a landscaping grass that is somewhat smaller and more compact than the species.
Plant Description
Plant Type
Plant Type
Grasses

Size
Size
3 - 6 ft tall
2 - 8 ft wide

Form
Form
Fountain, Weeping

Growth Rate
Growth Rate
Moderate

Dormancy
Dormancy
Evergreen

Fragrance
Fragrance
None

Flower Color
Flower Color
Brown

Wildlife Supported
 
Seeds eaten by mammals and birds.

 
Butterflies & moths hosted ( 2 confirmed , 10 likely * ) SHOW ALL

Landscaping Information
Sun
Sun
Full Sun

Moisture
Moisture
Very Low

Summer Irrigation
Summer Irrigation
Max 1x / month once established

Nurseries
Nurseries

Ease of Care
Ease of Care
Very Easy

Cold Tolerance
Cold Tolerance
Tolerates cold to 15° F

Soil Drainage
Soil Drainage
Fast, Medium, Slow

Soil Description
Soil Description
Tolerant of sand and clay. Tolerates Serpentine Soil. Soil PH: 5.0 - 8.0

Common uses
Common uses
Groundcovers, Deer Resistant, Butterfly Gardens

Companion Plants
Companion Plants
California Encelia, California Sagebrush, Coyotebrush, Oaks, Salvia spp, Eriogonum spp.

Maintenance
Maintenance
Can be pruned back to the ground in summer if it becomes floppy. Remove rhizomes to control spread

Propagation
Propagation?
Can be propagated from rhizomes cut from the mother plant in Spring.  For propagating by seed: No treatment.

Sunset Zones
Sunset Zones?
7*, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14*, 15*, 16*, 17*, 18*, 19*, 20*, 21*, 22*, 23*, 24*

Natural Setting
Site Type
Site Type
Near the coast, in dry slopes, open places as a component of coastal sage scrub or chaparral. In inland valleys and foothill areas it is associated with oak woodlands. It is also found in some high desert areas with Joshua tree woodland

Climate
Climate
Annual Precipitation: 5.1" - 50.8", Summer Precipitation: 0.14" - 3.40", Coldest Month: 28.5" - 56.9", Hottest Month: 54.9" - 84.0", Humidity: 0.04" - 35.93", Elevation: -7" - 7531"

Alternative Names
Botanical Names: Leymus condensatus
Common Names: Giant Rye Grass, Giant Wild-rye


Sources include: Wikipedia. All text shown in the "About" section of these pages is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Plant observation data provided by the participants of the California Consortia of Herbaria, Sunset information provided by Jepson Flora Project. Propogation from seed information provided by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden from "Seed Propagation of Native California Plants" by Dara E. Emery. Sources of plant photos include CalPhotos, Wikimedia Commons, and independent plant photographers who have agreed to share their images with Calscape. Other general sources of information include Calflora, CNPS Manual of Vegetation Online, Jepson Flora Project, Las Pilitas, Theodore Payne, Tree of Life, The Xerces Society, and information provided by CNPS volunteer editors, with special thanks to Don Rideout. Climate data used in creation of plant range maps is from PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University, using 30 year (1981-2010) annual "normals" at an 800 meter spatial resolution.

Links:   Jepson eFlora Taxon Page  CalPhotos  Wikipedia  Calflora


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