Achnatherum calamagrostis(L.) P.Beauv.

WFO wfo-0000841262 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Achnatherum calamagrostis, photographed by Josip Skejo
fig. a Josip Skejo, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-03 / obs. 157793551
Achnatherum calamagrostis, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. b Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145783085
Achnatherum calamagrostis, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. c Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145783017
Achnatherum calamagrostis, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. d Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145783107
Achnatherum calamagrostis, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. e Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145783132
Achnatherum calamagrostis, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. f Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 145783158
Achnatherum calamagrostis, photographed by Gergely Nigg
fig. g Gergely Nigg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181046142

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 28 botanical countries

Regions where Achnatherum calamagrostis is native: Morocco, Altay, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, Manchuria, Mongolia, Tadzhikistan, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, Spain, Switzerland MoroccoAltayBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskManchuriaMongoliaTadzhikistanTuvaWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaFranceGermanyGreeceItalyNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSpainSwitzerland
Native distribution of Achnatherum calamagrostis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Kirgizstan KGZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Tadzhikistan TZK
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Bulgaria BUL
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Morocco MOR AFRICA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 268 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -11.5 °C -7.1 °C -1.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.5 °C 21.0 °C 26.1 °C
Annual rainfall 836 mm 1,370 mm 1,981 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 130 mm 211 mm 371 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 268 research-grade observations of Achnatherum calamagrostis that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 34 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Achnatherum argenteum (DC.) P.Beauv.
  • Achnatherum calamagrostis subsp. mesatlasicum (Quézel) Dobignard
  • Achnatherum calamagrostis var. colorata (Pančić) Niketic
  • Achnatherum halleri (Willd.) P.Beauv.
  • Achnatherum mesatlasica (Quézel) Ibn Tattou
  • Agrostis argentea Lam.
  • Agrostis calamagrostis L.
  • Arundo argentea (DC.) Clairv.
  • Arundo calamagrostis (L.) Vest
  • Arundo halleri Willd.
  • Arundo neglecta Ehrh.
  • Arundo speciosa Schrad.
  • Calamagrostis argentea DC.
  • Calamagrostis argentea subsp. mesatlasica Quézel
  • Calamagrostis arundo J.F.Gmel.
  • Calamagrostis conspicua Bergeret
  • Calamagrostis halleri (Willd.) Brand
  • Calamagrostis leersii Trin. ex Steud.
  • Calamagrostis leucantha Delile ex Steud.
  • Calamagrostis neglecta G.Gaertn., B.Mey. & Scherb.
  • Calamagrostis neglecta subsp. euneglecta Matuszk.
  • Calamagrostis speciosa (Schrad.) Host
  • Deyeuxia neglecta Kunth
  • Lasiagrostis calamagrostis (L.) Link

and 10 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.