BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary
Eriocoma thurberiana
Thurber's needlegrass
| Scientific Name: | Eriocoma thurberiana (Piper) Romasch. | ||||||||||
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| Scientific Name Synonyms: |
Achnatherum thurberianum
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| English Name: | Thurber's needlegrass | ||||||||||
| Classification / Taxonomy | |||||||||||
| Scientific Name - Concept Reference: | Kartesz, J.T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. 2nd edition. 2 vols. Timber Press, Portland, OR. | ||||||||||
| Classification Level: | Species | ||||||||||
| Species Group: | Vascular Plant | ||||||||||
| Species Code: | ACHNTHU | ||||||||||
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| Conservation Status / Legal Designation | |||||||||||
| Global Status: | G5 (Sep 1987) | ||||||||||
| Provincial Status: | S3 (Apr 2019) | ||||||||||
| BC List: | Blue | ||||||||||
| Provincial FRPA list: | |||||||||||
| Provincial Wildlife Act: | |||||||||||
| COSEWIC Status: | |||||||||||
| SARA Schedule: | |||||||||||
| General Status Canada: | |||||||||||
| Ecology & Life History | |||||||||||
| General Description: | Thurber's Needlegrass is tufted grass 20-70 cm tall arising from fibrous roots. The leaves are 1-2.2 mm broad but strongly involute, and the membranous ligule is 2-5 mm long, acute to truncate. The panicle is 7-13 cm long, usually erect, with glumes 9-14 mm long, and equal or subequal. The awn is twice geniculate, over 10 cm long, and with hairs 1-2 mm long on all but the terminal segment. | ||||||||||
| Technical Description: | |||||||||||
| Diagnostic Characteristics: | Distinguished from Stipa comata by glumes less than 15 mm long, and conspicuously hairy on lower part of awn. Distinguished from other hairy species of Stipa by hairs on the awn that are 1 mm long or longer. | ||||||||||
| Similar Species: | |||||||||||
| Global Reproduction Comments: | Reproduces by seed and tillers (Archer 2000). | ||||||||||
| Global Ecology Comments: |
Common plant associates throughout the range of Thurber's needlegrass include Artemisia tridentata, Artemisia arbuscula, Poa secunda, Elymus elymoides, and Bromus tectorum (Archer 2000). Thurber's needlegrass is "moderately" resistant to fire. It can suffer severe damage when abundant aboveground vegetation of needlegrass continues to burn below the soil surface, causing subsurface charring. Fire-enhanced flowering is one adaptation to fire. Postburn regeneration is typically by seed (Archer 2000). |
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| Habitats: (Type / Subtype / Dependence) |
Grassland/Shrub / Sagebrush Steppe / Obligate
Rock/Sparsely Vegetated Rock / Rock/Sparsely Vegetated Rock / Obligate |
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| Global Habitat Comments: | Common in semiarid landscapes on a variety of soil types that are coarse textured. It is found on hillsides, mostly on the N and E slopes where there is more moisture and less variation in temperature. It is found in forested, steppe, and shrub-steppe communities of the Pacific Northwest and Great Basin regions (Archer 2000). | ||||||||||
| Provincial Habitat Comments: | Dry forest openings in the steppe zone. | ||||||||||
| Provincial Phenology: (1st half of month/ 2nd half of month) |
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| Elevation (m) (min / max): | Provincial: | ||||||||||
| Known Pests: | |||||||||||
| Pollen Vector: |
ABIOTIC
Wind |
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| Pollinator: | |||||||||||
| Dispersal: |
BIOTIC
Mammals |
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| Provincial Inventory | |||||||||||
| Inventory Priority: | |||||||||||
| Ownership of occurrences (Known locations): | |||||||||||
| Inventory Need: | |||||||||||
| Economic Attributes | |||||||||||
| Distribution | |||||||||||
| Endemic: | N | ||||||||||
| Disjunct, more common elsewhere: | N | ||||||||||
| Peripheral, major distribution elsewhere: | N | ||||||||||
| Authors / Contributors | |||||||||||
| Global Information Author: | JM | ||||||||||
| Last Updated: | Dec 10, 1994 | ||||||||||
| Provincial Information Author: | Donovan, M. | ||||||||||
| Last Updated: | Aug 22, 2008 | ||||||||||
| Last Literature Search: | |||||||||||
| References and Related Literature | |||||||||||
Archer, A. J. 2000. Achnatherum thurberianum. In: Fire Effects Information System. USDA, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available online: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ (Accessed 6 October 2011). |
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Flora of North America Editorial Committee (FNA). 2007a. Flora of North America north of Mexico. Vol. 24. Magnoliophyta: Commelinidae (in part): Poaceae, part 1. Oxford Univ. Press, New York. xxviii + 911 pp. |
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Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.
Suggested Citation:
B.C. Conservation Data Centre. 1994. Species Summary: Eriocoma thurberiana. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 9, 2026).