Agrostis clavataTrin.

clavate bentgrass

WFO wfo-0000843445 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 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.

Agrostis clavata, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. a Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-27 / obs. 154151373
Agrostis clavata, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. b Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148911015
Agrostis clavata, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. c Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154151398
Agrostis clavata, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. d Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148911024
Agrostis clavata, photographed by Yurii Basov
fig. e Yurii Basov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 84401287
Agrostis clavata, photographed by Yurii Basov
fig. f Yurii Basov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 44796390
Agrostis clavata, photographed by Yurii Basov
fig. g Yurii Basov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 84401312
Agrostis clavata, photographed by Yurii Basov
fig. h Yurii Basov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 44796399

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 37 botanical countries

Regions where Agrostis clavata is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Nansei-shoto, North Caucasus, Primorye, Sakhalin, Taiwan, Tibet, Tuva, West Siberia, Yakutiya, East Himalaya, New Guinea, Central European Russia, East European Russia, Finland, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Sweden, Alaska, Yukon AltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaMongoliaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeSakhalinTaiwanTibetTuvaWest SiberiaYakutiyaEast HimalayaNew GuineaCentral European RussiaEast European RussiaFinlandNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaSwedenAlaskaYukon KoreaNansei-shoto
Native distribution of Agrostis clavata, 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
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Nansei-shoto NNS
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Yakutiya YAK
Central European Russia RUC EUROPE
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Sweden SWE
East Himalaya EHM ASIA-TROPICAL
New Guinea NWG
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Yukon YUK

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is.. 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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 33 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -30.3 °C -2.5 °C 11.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 16.3 °C 23.2 °C 28.7 °C
Annual rainfall 482 mm 1,244 mm 4,422 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 35 mm 184 mm 809 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 33 research-grade observations of Agrostis clavata 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 25 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.

  • Agrostis abakanensis Less. ex Trin.
  • Agrostis bottnica Murb.
  • Agrostis clavata f. aprica H.Lindb.
  • Agrostis clavata f. flaccida Krylov
  • Agrostis clavata f. robustior Krylov
  • Agrostis clavata f. umbrosa H.Lindb.
  • Agrostis clavata subsp. clavata
  • Agrostis clavata subsp. matsumurae (Hack. ex Honda) Tateoka
  • Agrostis clavata var. macilenta (Keng) Y.C.Yang
  • Agrostis clavata var. nukabo Ohwi
  • Agrostis clavata var. putoranica Peschkova
  • Agrostis clavata var. szechuanica Y.C.Tong ex Y.C.Yang
  • Agrostis exarata subsp. clavata (Trin.) T.Koyama
  • Agrostis exarata subsp. nukabo (Ohwi) T.Koyama
  • Agrostis exarata var. nukabo (Ohwi) T.Koyama
  • Agrostis formosana Ohwi
  • Agrostis macilenta Keng
  • Agrostis macrothyrsa Hack.
  • Agrostis matsumurae Hack. ex Honda
  • Agrostis perarta Keng f.
  • Agrostis szechuanica (Y.C.Tong ex Y.C.Yang) L.Liu
  • Agrostis teberdensis Litv.
  • Agrostis tenuiflora Steud.
  • Agrostis wulingensis Honda

and 1 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.