Grass or grass-like · Poaceae
Prairie cordgrass
Spartina pectinata
Prairie cordgrass is recorded as native to 40 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 939 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Key facts · USDA PLANTS
Prairie cordgrass at a glance
- Native in
- 939 counties, across 40 states and territories
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 3b PLANTS minimum temperature −38°F
- Mature height
- 8 ft PLANTS mature height
- Light and water
- Full sun (shade-intolerant) High water use
Estimated cold hardiness: zone 3b. PLANTS gives a minimum temperature of −38°F; zone 3b winters bottom out at −35°F, the coldest half-zone that stays within that limit.
Prairie cordgrass is recorded as native to 40 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 939 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Counties where it is native
The 15 counties with the most ZIP codes among the 939 where it is listed.
Native counties by state
- Arkansas 10 counties
- Colorado 12 counties
- Connecticut statewide record
- Delaware 1 county
- District of Columbia 1 county
- Idaho 6 counties
- Illinois 89 counties
- Indiana 44 counties
- Iowa 35 counties
- Kansas 84 counties
- Kentucky 15 counties
- Louisiana 3 counties
- Maine 16 counties
- Massachusetts 14 counties
- Michigan 34 counties
- Minnesota 70 counties
- Missouri 44 counties
- Montana 9 counties
- Nebraska 57 counties
- New Hampshire 5 counties
- New Jersey 14 counties
- New Mexico 2 counties
- New York 38 counties
- North Carolina 5 counties
- North Dakota 51 counties
- Ohio 43 counties
- Oklahoma 16 counties
- Oregon 4 counties
- Pennsylvania 35 counties
- Rhode Island 3 counties
- South Dakota 48 counties
- Tennessee 8 counties
- Texas 18 counties
- Utah 4 counties
- Vermont 5 counties
- Virginia 9 counties
- Washington 4 counties
- West Virginia 18 counties
- Wisconsin 53 counties
- Wyoming 12 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
- 8 ft
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Growth form
- Rhizomatous
- Shape
- Erect
- Lifespan
- Long
- Active growth period
- Spring and Summer
Light and water
- Shade tolerance
- Intolerant (full sun (shade-intolerant))
- Moisture use
- High water use
- Drought tolerance
- Low
- Tolerance of waterlogged soil
- High
- Precipitation range
- 14 to 35 in per year
Soil
- Soil textures
- Coarse and medium
- pH range
- 6 to 8.5
- Lime (CaCO₃) tolerance
- Medium
- Salinity tolerance
- Low
- Fertility requirement
- Medium
- Minimum root depth
- 18 in
Climate
- Minimum temperature
- −38°F
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 3b and warmer
- Minimum frost-free days
- 110
- 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
- SPPE
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
- Spartina pectinata (PLANTS symbol SPPE).
- 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