Andropogon gayanusKunth

bluestem

WFO wfo-0000846619 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 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 gayanus, photographed by Douglas
fig. a Douglas, CC BY 4.0 / 2018-10-07 / obs. 26253112
Andropogon gayanus, photographed by Douglas
fig. b Douglas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 26253021
Andropogon gayanus, photographed by Douglas
fig. c Douglas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 26252933
Andropogon gayanus, photographed by Douglas
fig. d Douglas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 26252837
Andropogon gayanus, photographed by Ben Lewis
fig. e Ben Lewis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148902566

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 40 botanical countries

Regions where Andropogon gayanus is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Caprivi Strip, Central African Republic, Chad, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ivory Coast, KwaZulu-Natal, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCameroonCaprivi StripCentral African RepublicChadDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaGabonGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauGulf of Guinea Is.Ivory CoastKwaZulu-NatalLiberiaMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesSenegalSierra LeoneSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabwe Cape Verde
Native distribution of Andropogon gayanus, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Verde CVI
Caprivi Strip CPV
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Gabon GAB
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Ivory Coast IVO
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Liberia LBR
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

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 76 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 12.9 °C 18.2 °C 21.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.9 °C 34.1 °C 38.9 °C
Annual rainfall 608 mm 1,571 mm 1,935 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 0 mm 9 mm 86 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 76 research-grade observations of Andropogon gayanus 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 43 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 aethiopicus Rupr. ex Steud.
  • Andropogon appendiculatus var. polycladus Hack.
  • Andropogon bisquamulatus Hochst.
  • Andropogon bisquamulatus var. argyrophoeus Stapf
  • Andropogon cordofanus Hochst.
  • Andropogon dewevrei De Wild.
  • Andropogon gayanus var. aquamulatus (Hochst.) Stapf
  • Andropogon gayanus var. argyrophoeus (Stapf) Stapf
  • Andropogon gayanus var. cordofanus (Hochst.) Hack.
  • Andropogon gayanus var. squamulatus (Hochst.) Stapf
  • Andropogon guineensis Schumach.
  • Andropogon helophilus K.Schum.
  • Andropogon hylophilus Engl.
  • Andropogon hylophilus K.Schum.
  • Andropogon infrasulcatus Reznik
  • Andropogon reconditus Steud.
  • Andropogon ringoetii De Wild.
  • Andropogon sorghum subsp. cordofanus (Hochst.) Piper
  • Andropogon squamulatus Hochst.
  • Andropogon tomentellus Steud.
  • Andropogon tridentatus Hochst.
  • Cymbachne guineensis (Schumach.) Roberty
  • Cymbachne guineensis subvar. achimotae Roberty
  • Cymbachne guineensis subvar. berhautii Roberty

and 19 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.