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Poaceae family

Western Oat Avena occidentalis

Western Oat is an introduced annual grass, found in the lower 48 states.

More about this plant

Avena fatua is a species of grass in the oat genus. It is known as the common wild oat. Like fellow wild oat species A. sterilis, it bears 42 chromosomes, and its seeds shatter at maturity for yearly seeding. This oat is native to Eurasia but it has been introduced to most of the other temperate regions of the world. It is naturalized in some areas and considered a noxious weed in others. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 11 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Annual
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~22 caterpillar species

Avena supports ~22 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a moderate genus for introduced plants — native genera typically support far more.

Recorded feeding on Avena in North America, including:

Agrotis gladiaria · Swordsman Dart Agrotis ipsilon · Dark Sword-Grass Agrotis orthogonia · Pale Western Cutworm Agrotis venerabilis · Venerable Dart Apamea amputatrix · Yellow-Headed Cutworm Apamea devastator · Glassy Cutworm
+ 8 more species →
Cercyonis pegala · Common Wood Nymph Dargida procinctus · Olive Green Cutworm Ephestia kuehniella · Mediterranean Flour Moth Euxoa auxiliaris · Army Cutworm Moth Euxoa detersa · Rubbed Dart Euxoa ochrogaster · owlet moth Faronta albilinea · owlet moth Faronta diffusa · owlet moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (10) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[06] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[08] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[09] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[10] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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