Apluda muticaL.

Mauritian grass

WFO wfo-0000848312 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Apluda mutica, photographed by chiuluan
fig. a chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-20 / obs. 199129519

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
39946
Filed as
Apluda mutica L.
Det. by
W. Nanakorn 1989-01-01
Collected
W. Nanakorn 1989-01-15
Origin
TH
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 46 botanical countries

Regions where Apluda mutica is native: Mauritius, Réunion, Socotra, Afghanistan, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Nansei-shoto, Oman, Tadzhikistan, Taiwan, Tibet, Uzbekistan, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, Cocos (Keeling) Is., East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laccadive Is., Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maldives, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Pakistan, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Caroline Is., New Caledonia, Vanuatu AfghanistanChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanKazakhstanKirgizstanOmanTadzhikistanTaiwanTibetUzbekistanAssamBangladeshBorneoCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPakistanPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNew Caledonia MauritiusRéunionNansei-shotoAndaman Is.Laccadive Is.MaldivesNicobar Is.Caroline Is.Vanuatu
Native distribution of Apluda mutica, 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
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
Cocos (Keeling) Is. CKI
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laccadive Is. LDV
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maldives MDV
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Nansei-shoto NNS
Oman OMA
Tadzhikistan TZK
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Uzbekistan UZB
Mauritius MAU AFRICA
Réunion REU
Socotra SOC
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
New Caledonia NWC
Vanuatu VAN

Not drawn on the map: Socotra, Cocos (Keeling) Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are 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 166 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 7.9 °C 12.1 °C 20.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.9 °C 31.2 °C 42.0 °C
Annual rainfall 706 mm 1,610 mm 3,381 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 5 mm 80 mm 468 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 166 research-grade observations of Apluda mutica 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 40 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 aristatus (L.) Raspail
  • Andropogon glaucus Retz.
  • Andropogon involucratus J.Koenig ex Steud.
  • Apluda aristata L.
  • Apluda aristata var. ciliata (Andersson) S.K.Jain
  • Apluda aristata var. jainii S.K.Jain
  • Apluda blatteri Sur
  • Apluda ciliata Andersson
  • Apluda communis Nees & Arn.
  • Apluda communis Arn. & Nees
  • Apluda cumingii Buse
  • Apluda geniculata Roxb.
  • Apluda gigantea (P.Beauv.) Spreng.
  • Apluda glauca (Retz.) Schreb.
  • Apluda humilis (J.Presl) Kunth
  • Apluda inermis Regel
  • Apluda kobila Buch.-Ham. ex Nees
  • Apluda microstachya Nees
  • Apluda mucronata Steud.
  • Apluda mutica subsp. aristata (L.) Babu
  • Apluda mutica var. aristata (L.) Hack. ex K.Bakker
  • Apluda mutica var. major (Hack.) S.K.Jain
  • Apluda pedicellata Buse ex de Vriese
  • Apluda pedicellata Buse

and 16 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.