DACF Home → Bureaus & Programs → Maine Natural Areas Program → Communities, Plants, and Animals → Rare Plants → Elymus canadensis
Elymus canadensis L.
Canada Wild Rye
- State Rank: SH
- Global Rank: G5
- State Status: Potentially Extirpated
Habitat: Cliffs, balds, ledges, ridges, talus and rocky slopes, floodplains, forests.
Range: New Brunswick and Quebec, west to Alaska, south to Texas and California.
Aids to Identification: Like other members of the genus Elymus, Canada wild rye is a tall grass with bristly terminal spikes, and the plant may appear bluish. Unlike the typical flat leaf-blades of other species in this genus, Canada wild rye has thick and hard leaves that are involute at the tip. Additionally, Elymus canadensis differs from E. wiegandii in having a smooth, glabrous, or scabrous leaf surfrace (vs. finely densely hairy or pillose/villous surface).
Ecological characteristics: A species of dry, gravelly, or rocky soil to streambanks and dry to moist fields and meadows. This species is tolerant of heavy metals.
Phenology: Fruits July - October.
Family: Poaceae
Synonyms: Elymus canadensis L. var. glaucifolius (Muhl. ex Willd.) Torr.; Elymus canadensis L. var. villosus Bates.
Known Distribution in Maine: This rare plant has been documented from several towns in the following county(ies): Aroostook, Kennebeck, Oxford, Piscataquis, Somerset, and York.
Reason(s) for rarity: Uncertain.