The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Thinopyrum intermedium
Intermediate wheatgrass is a sod-forming perennial grass native to Europe and western Asia, grown as a forage, soil-building crop (its grain is marketed as Kernza) and as an ornamental. It is hardy and tolerant of a range of conditions, making it easy to establish in open temperate sites.
Thinopyrum intermedium, known commonly as intermediate wheatgrass, is a sod-forming perennial grass in the Triticeae tribe of Pooideae native to Europe and Western Asia. It is part of a group of plants commonly called wheatgrasses because of the similarity of their seed heads or ears to common wheat. However, wheatgrasses generally are perennial, while wheat is an annual.
Trials with intermediate wheatgrass, the product of which is trademarked by the Land Institute as "Kernza", show that it can be grown as a "multi-functional" crop, yielding various commodities as well as ecosystem services. Whereas annuals such as corn tend to deplete soil organic matter and require inputs, a perennial grain such as intermediate wheatgrass can yield crops while building soil organic matter.
The species has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit as an ornamental.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Thinopyrum intermedium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
