Agrostis capillarisL.

Colonial bent(grass)Colonial bentgrassCommon bentcolonial bentgrass

WFO wfo-0000841743 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Agrostis capillaris, photographed by Andrea Mologni
fig. a Andrea Mologni, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-20 / obs. 200667398
Agrostis capillaris, photographed by Jon Sullivan
fig. b Jon Sullivan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194982063
Agrostis capillaris, photographed by Leon Perrie
fig. c Leon Perrie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191536830
Agrostis capillaris, photographed by Jenny Saito
fig. d Jenny Saito, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187223011
Agrostis capillaris, photographed by Jenny Saito
fig. e Jenny Saito, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187212545
Agrostis capillaris, photographed by Jenny Saito
fig. f Jenny Saito, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 185975969
Agrostis capillaris, photographed by Jenny Saito
fig. g Jenny Saito, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 185019352
Agrostis capillaris, photographed by Jenny Saito
fig. h Jenny Saito, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 184797691

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 50 botanical countries

Regions where Agrostis capillaris is native: Afghanistan, Altay, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China Southeast, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Irkutsk, Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Krym, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine AfghanistanAltayBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina SoutheastInner MongoliaIranIrkutskKazakhstanKrasnoyarskNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaXinjiangAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIcelandIrelandItalyKrymNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine Føroyar
Native distribution of Agrostis capillaris, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Iceland ICE
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Altay ALT
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China Southeast CHS
Inner Mongolia CHI
Iran IRN
Irkutsk IRK
Kazakhstan KAZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Flowering 50 in flower of 134 examined

Peak flowering in Dec. Each bar is the share of Agrostis capillaris observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 50 of 134 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,037 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -14.0 °C -3.5 °C 5.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 16.8 °C 21.7 °C 24.9 °C
Annual rainfall 553 mm 758 mm 1,731 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 88 mm 143 mm 332 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 2,037 research-grade observations of Agrostis capillaris 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 172 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.

  • Agrestis polymorpha Bubani
  • Agrostis alba subsp. silvatica (Huds.) K.Richt.
  • Agrostis alba subsp. vulgaris (With.) Hitchc.
  • Agrostis alba subsp. vulgaris (With.) Douin
  • Agrostis alba subvar. pumila (L.) Coss. & Germ.
  • Agrostis alba var. aristata A.Gray
  • Agrostis alba var. minor Vasey
  • Agrostis alba var. pumila (L.) Spenn.
  • Agrostis alba var. silvatica (Huds.) K.Richt.
  • Agrostis alba var. stricta (Willd.) Alph.Wood
  • Agrostis alba var. sylvatica (Huds.) Sm.
  • Agrostis alba var. tenuis (Sibth.) Fiori
  • Agrostis alba var. vulgaris (With.) Coss. & Durieu
  • Agrostis atropurpurea Steud.
  • Agrostis atroviolacea Sennen
  • Agrostis borbonica C.Cordem.
  • Agrostis canina f. varians (Thuill.) Beldie
  • Agrostis canina var. glaucina (T.Bastard) Delastre
  • Agrostis canina var. varians (Thuill.) Ducommun
  • Agrostis capillaris f. setulosa (Murb.) Lindm.
  • Agrostis capillaris subsp. oreophila (O.Schwarz) Soják
  • Agrostis capillaris var. alpigena (Schur) Portal
  • Agrostis capillaris var. aristata Dogan
  • Agrostis capillaris var. aristata (Parn.) Druce

and 148 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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.