Andropogon distachyosL.

WFO wfo-0000846457 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 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.

Andropogon distachyos, photographed by Quentin Groom
fig. a Quentin Groom, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-16 / obs. 198289723
Andropogon distachyos, photographed by Andre Hosper
fig. b Andre Hosper, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 190066700
Andropogon distachyos, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. c Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 128435413
Andropogon distachyos, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. d Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115112140
Andropogon distachyos, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. e Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 114442507
Andropogon distachyos, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. f Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 128435506
Andropogon distachyos, photographed by Eleftherios Katsillis
fig. g Eleftherios Katsillis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115112080
Andropogon distachyos, photographed by Chiara Catalano
fig. h Chiara Catalano, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 180949190

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 38 botanical countries

Regions where Andropogon distachyos is native: Algeria, Cameroon, Canary Is., Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Free State, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Libya, Morocco, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Türkiye, Yemen, Albania, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, NW. Balkan Pen., Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain AlgeriaCameroonChadEritreaEthiopiaFree StateKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLibyaMoroccoNorthern ProvincesRwandaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTunisiaUgandaZambiaZimbabweCyprusEast Aegean Is.Lebanon-SyriaOmanPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiTürkiyeYemenAlbaniaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiNW. Balkan Pen.SiciliaSpain Canary Is.Sardegna
Native distribution of Andropogon distachyos, 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
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
Canary Is. CNY
Chad CHA
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Libya LBY
Morocco MOR
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Tunisia TUN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Albania ALB EUROPE
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Oman OMA
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Türkiye TUR
Yemen YEM

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 101 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 2.5 °C 7.5 °C 11.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.5 °C 28.2 °C 32.0 °C
Annual rainfall 586 mm 781 mm 967 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 2 mm 8 mm 124 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 101 research-grade observations of Andropogon distachyos 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 11 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.

  • Andropogon distachyos subvar. alpinus Chiov.
  • Andropogon distachyos subvar. luxurians Chiov.
  • Andropogon distachyos var. dasystachys Hack.
  • Andropogon distachyos var. hirtus Chiov.
  • Andropogon sanguinarius Schreb.
  • Apluda distachya (L.) P.Beauv.
  • Chrysopogon distachyos (L.) L.Rossi
  • Holcus distachyos Cat.
  • Holcus liburnicus Scop.
  • Pollinia distachya (L.) Spreng.
  • Sorghum distachyum (L.) Kuntze

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.