Grass or grass-like · Poaceae
Bitter panicgrass
Panicum amarum · includes its varieties and subspecies
Bitter panicgrass is recorded as native to 18 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 113 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Key facts · USDA PLANTS
Bitter panicgrass at a glance
- Native in
- 113 counties, across 18 states and territories
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 5b PLANTS minimum temperature −18°F
- Mature height
- 5 ft PLANTS mature height
- Light and water
- Full sun (shade-intolerant) Medium water use
Estimated cold hardiness: zone 5b. PLANTS gives a minimum temperature of −18°F; zone 5b winters bottom out at −15°F, the coldest half-zone that stays within that limit.
Bitter panicgrass is recorded as native to 18 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 113 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Counties where it is native
The 15 counties with the most ZIP codes among the 113 where it is listed.
Native counties by state
- Alabama 3 counties
- Connecticut statewide record
- Delaware 3 counties
- Florida 20 counties
- Georgia 4 counties
- Louisiana 7 counties
- Maryland 1 county
- Massachusetts 1 county
- Mississippi 2 counties
- New Jersey 8 counties
- New Mexico 1 county
- New York 5 counties
- North Carolina 14 counties
- Pennsylvania 2 counties
- South Carolina 3 counties
- Texas 12 counties
- Virginia 25 counties
- West Virginia 2 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
- 5 ft
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Growth form
- Bunch
- Shape
- Erect
- Lifespan
- Long
- Active growth period
- Summer
Light and water
- Shade tolerance
- Intolerant (full sun (shade-intolerant))
- Moisture use
- Medium water use
- Drought tolerance
- High
- Tolerance of waterlogged soil
- Medium
- Precipitation range
- 18 to 60 in per year
Soil
- Soil textures
- Coarse and medium
- pH range
- 5 to 7.5
- Lime (CaCO₃) tolerance
- Low
- Salinity tolerance
- Medium
- Fertility requirement
- Low
- Minimum root depth
- 16 in
Climate
- Minimum temperature
- −18°F
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 5b and warmer
- Minimum frost-free days
- 180
- Fire tolerance
- High
Flowers, leaves and fruit
- Flower color
- Yellow
- Showy flowers
- No
- Bloom period
- Mid Summer
- 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
- PAAM2
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
- Panicum amarum (PLANTS symbol PAAM2), including 2 varieties and 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