Grass or grass-like · Poaceae
Fringed brome
Bromus ciliatus · includes its varieties and subspecies
Fringed brome is recorded as native to 35 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 528 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Key facts · USDA PLANTS
Fringed brome at a glance
- Native in
- 528 counties, across 35 states and territories
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 7a PLANTS minimum temperature −3°F
- Mature height
- 4 ft PLANTS mature height
- Light and water
- Tolerates shade Medium water use
Estimated cold hardiness: zone 7a. PLANTS gives a minimum temperature of −3°F; zone 7a winters bottom out at 0°F, the coldest half-zone that stays within that limit.
Fringed brome is recorded as native to 35 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 528 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Counties where it is native
The 15 counties with the most ZIP codes among the 528 where it is listed.
Native counties by state
- Alabama 3 counties
- Alaska 9 counties
- Arizona 10 counties
- California 19 counties
- Colorado 31 counties
- Connecticut statewide record
- Idaho 16 counties
- Illinois 46 counties
- Indiana 14 counties
- Iowa 10 counties
- Maine 16 counties
- Maryland 2 counties
- Massachusetts 9 counties
- Minnesota 50 counties
- Montana 1 county
- Nebraska 8 counties
- New Hampshire 10 counties
- New Mexico 19 counties
- New York 51 counties
- North Carolina 1 county
- North Dakota 19 counties
- Ohio 9 counties
- Oregon 13 counties
- Pennsylvania 26 counties
- Rhode Island 1 county
- South Dakota 6 counties
- Tennessee 1 county
- Texas 3 counties
- Utah 23 counties
- Vermont 12 counties
- Virginia 7 counties
- Washington 10 counties
- West Virginia 11 counties
- Wisconsin 49 counties
- Wyoming 13 counties
Growing traits
Values from the PLANTS characteristics record. “Not recorded” means PLANTS has no value; nothing here is estimated except the zone.
Growth
- Growth habit
- Graminoid
- Duration
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 4 ft
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Growth form
- Bunch
- Shape
- Erect
- Lifespan
- Long
- Active growth period
- Spring and Summer
Light and water
- Shade tolerance
- Tolerant (tolerates shade)
- Moisture use
- Medium water use
- Drought tolerance
- Low
- Tolerance of waterlogged soil
- Low
- Precipitation range
- 12 to 40 in per year
Soil
- Soil textures
- Coarse and fine
- pH range
- 5.5 to 7.5
- Lime (CaCO₃) tolerance
- Medium
- Salinity tolerance
- Low
- Fertility requirement
- Low
- Minimum root depth
- 16 in
Climate
- Minimum temperature
- −3°F
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 7a and warmer
- Minimum frost-free days
- 175
- Fire tolerance
- Medium
Flowers, leaves and fruit
- Flower color
- Yellow
- Showy flowers
- No
- Bloom period
- Spring
- Foliage color
- Green
- Showy in fall
- No
- Keeps leaves
- No
- Fruit color
- Brown
Other
- Toxicity
- None
- Nitrogen fixation
- None
- Nursery availability
- Routinely Available
- Family
- Poaceae
- PLANTS symbol
- BRCI2
Source & data date
- Source
- USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).
- Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.
- USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
- Citation
- USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.
- Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
- Data date
- Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
- Scope
- Bromus ciliatus (PLANTS symbol BRCI2), including 1 variety or subspecies folded into the species.
- Method
- A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources