Andropogon tener(Nees) Kunth

slender little bluestem

WFO wfo-0000847638 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, 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 tener, photographed by Scott Ward
fig. a Scott Ward, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-24 / obs. 159434757
Andropogon tener, photographed by Scott Ward
fig. b Scott Ward, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159434812
Andropogon tener, photographed by Scott Ward
fig. c Scott Ward, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159434860

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 Andropogon tener is native: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela AlabamaFloridaGeorgiaLouisianaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestMississippiOklahomaTexasArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoUruguayVenezuela
Native distribution of Andropogon tener, 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
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Louisiana LOU
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Mississippi MSI
Oklahoma OKL
Texas TEX

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 40 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.3 °C 6.8 °C 9.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.7 °C 32.9 °C 33.9 °C
Annual rainfall 658 mm 1,455 mm 1,838 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 27 mm 302 mm 355 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 40 research-grade observations of Andropogon tener 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 30 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 campestris Kunth
  • Andropogon gracilis J.Presl
  • Andropogon imberbis var. incertus Hack.
  • Andropogon leptophyllus Trin.
  • Andropogon neesii Trin.
  • Andropogon preslii Kunth
  • Andropogon schottii Rupr. ex Hack.
  • Andropogon schottii subvar. asperiglumis Hack.
  • Andropogon schottii subvar. typicus Hack.
  • Andropogon tabina Steud.
  • Andropogon tener subvar. hirtiglumis Henrard
  • Andropogon tener subvar. pilosus (Hack.) Hack.
  • Andropogon tener subvar. scabriglumis Hack.
  • Andropogon tener subvar. typicus Hack.
  • Andropogon tener var. dubius (Nees) Hack.
  • Andropogon tener var. filiformis (Nees) Hack.
  • Andropogon tener var. genuinus Hack.
  • Andropogon tener var. neesii (Trin.) Hack.
  • Andropogon tener var. pilosus Hack.
  • Elionurus dubius Nees
  • Schizachyrium biciliatum Roseng., B.R.Arrill. & Izag.
  • Schizachyrium filiforme Nees
  • Schizachyrium sanguineum subvar. schottii (Rupr. ex Hack.) Roberty
  • Schizachyrium tenerum Nees

and 6 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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol SCTE5. public domain. 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.