Alloteropsis semialata(R.Br.) Hitchc.

WFO wfo-0000845370 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Alloteropsis semialata, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. a Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-22 / obs. 199577755

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
00764516
Filed as
Alloteropsis semialata (R.Br.) Hitchc.
Det. by
P. C. Zietsman 1998-01-01
Collected
P. C. Zietsman 1998-11-10
Origin
ZA
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 58 botanical countries

Regions where Alloteropsis semialata is native: Angola, Benin, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan, Assam, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, New Caledonia AngolaBeninBurkinaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesChadCongoDR CongoEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGhanaGuineaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNigeriaNorthern ProvincesSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabweChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanTaiwanAssamCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNew South WalesNorthern TerritoryQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern AustraliaNew Caledonia
Native distribution of Alloteropsis semialata, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
New South Wales NSW AUSTRALASIA
Northern Territory NTA
Queensland QLD
South Australia SOA
Western Australia WAU
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Taiwan TAI
New Caledonia NWC PACIFIC

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 58 in flower of 79 examined

Proportion of examined Alloteropsis semialata in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 9 12 75% 47% to 91%
Feb 4 5 80% 38% to 96%
Mar 5 5 100% 57% to 100%
Apr 8 11 73% 43% to 90%
May 4 8 50% 22% to 78%
Jun 1 3 too few examined
Jul 0 0 too few examined
Aug 1 2 too few examined
Sep 1 2 too few examined
Oct 7 9 78% 45% to 94%
Nov 4 7 57% 25% to 84%
Dec 14 15 93% 70% to 99%

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Alloteropsis semialata 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. 58 of 79 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 4 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. 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 627 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 0.3 °C 8.7 °C 15.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.4 °C 26.7 °C 31.1 °C
Annual rainfall 689 mm 1,000 mm 1,724 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 16 mm 86 mm 154 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 627 research-grade observations of Alloteropsis semialata 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 32 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.

  • Aira viatica Griff.
  • Alloteropsis distachya J.Presl
  • Alloteropsis eckloniana (Lehm.) Hitchc.
  • Alloteropsis gwebiensis Stent & J.M.Rattray
  • Alloteropsis homblei Robyns
  • Alloteropsis semialata var. eckloniana (Lehm.) C.E.Hubb.
  • Alloteropsis semialata var. ecklonii (Stapf) Stapf
  • Alloteropsis semialata var. eklonii (Stapf) M.R.Almeida
  • Alloteropsis semialata var. semialata
  • Alloteropsis semialata var. viatica (Griff.) Ellis & Karthik. ex Karthik.
  • Alloteropsis semialata var. viatica (Griff.) J.L.Ellis & Karth.
  • Arundinella schultzii Benth.
  • Axonopus maidenianus Domin
  • Axonopus semialatus (R.Br.) Hook.f.
  • Axonopus semialatus var. ambigua (Honda) Makino & Nemoto
  • Axonopus semialatus var. ecklonianus (Lehm.) Peter
  • Axonopus semialatus var. eklonii Stapf
  • Bluffia eckloniana Lehm.
  • Coridochloa semialata (R.Br.) Nees
  • Coridochloa semialata (R.Br.) Nees ex Benth.
  • Coridochloa semialata (R.Br.) Nees ex Lindl.
  • Coridochloa semialata var. ambigua Honda
  • Holosetum philippicum Steud.
  • Oplismenus semialatus (R.Br.) Desv.

and 8 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.