Apera interrupta(L.) P.Beauv.

dense silky-bentdense silkybent

WFO wfo-0000848265 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 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.

Apera interrupta, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. a Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-07-03 / obs. 155850827
Apera interrupta, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. b Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155850834
Apera interrupta, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. c Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155850792
Apera interrupta, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. d Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155850772
Apera interrupta, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. e Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155850812
Apera interrupta, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. f Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155850788
Apera interrupta, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. g Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155850764
Apera interrupta, photographed by Ken-ichi Ueda
fig. h Ken-ichi Ueda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 1164639

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 33 botanical countries

Regions where Apera interrupta is native: Algeria, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia-Slovakia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaTunisiaAfghanistanIranIraqKazakhstanKirgizstanLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanPakistanAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaCzechia-SlovakiaFranceGermanyHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-Europe
Native distribution of Apera interrupta, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Bulgaria BUL
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Tunisia TUN
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. 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 45 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -13.2 °C -6.5 °C 1.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.8 °C 27.1 °C 31.5 °C
Annual rainfall 330 mm 692 mm 1,460 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 40 mm 117 mm 245 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 45 research-grade observations of Apera interrupta 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 17 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.

  • Agrestis interrupta (L.) Bubani
  • Agrostis anemagrostis subsp. interrupta (L.) Syme
  • Agrostis interrupta L.
  • Agrostis interrupta P.Gaertn., B.Mey. & Scherb.
  • Agrostis spica-venti subsp. interrupta (L.) Hook.f.
  • Agrostis spica-venti var. interrupta (L.) Hook.f.
  • Agrostis spica-venti var. interrupta (P.Gaertn., B.Mey. & Scherb.) G.Mey.
  • Agrostis spica-venti var. pygmaea Fr.
  • Agrostis spicaventi var. coarctata Neilr.
  • Anemagrostis interrupta (L.) Trin.
  • Apera interrupta var. humilis Sennen
  • Apera spica-venti f. pygmaea (Fr.) Neuman
  • Apera spica-venti var. interrupta (L.) Beal
  • Aspera interrupta P.Beauv.
  • Cynosurus splendens Ten. ex Roem. & Schult.
  • Milium interruptum (L.) Lag.
  • Muhlenbergia interrupta (L.) Steud.

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.