Aristida congestaRoem. & Schult.

WFO wfo-0000848682 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 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.

Aristida congesta, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-05-28 / obs. 136984949
Aristida congesta, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. b Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 136984683
Aristida congesta, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. c Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19685837
Aristida congesta, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 136984756
Aristida congesta, photographed by Ryan Donnelly
fig. e Ryan Donnelly, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201925914
Aristida congesta, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. f Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 136984895
Aristida congesta, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. g Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19296290
Aristida congesta, photographed by bat (Maria Vorontsova)
fig. h bat (Maria Vorontsova), CC0 1.0 / obs. 105706212

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 24 botanical countries

Regions where Aristida congesta is native: Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Chad, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia, Zimbabwe AlgeriaAngolaBotswanaCape ProvincesCaprivi StripChadEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMadagascarMauritaniaMoroccoMozambiqueNamibiaNorthern ProvincesSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTunisiaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Aristida congesta, 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
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Angola ANG
Botswana BOT
Cape Provinces CPP
Caprivi Strip CPV
Chad CHA
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Madagascar MDG
Mauritania MTN
Morocco MOR
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Tunisia TUN
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.

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.

  • Aristida alopecuroides Hack.
  • Aristida congesta subsp. congesta
  • Aristida congesta var. megalostachya Henrard
  • Aristida congesta var. pilifera Chiov.
  • Aristida elytrophomides Chiov.
  • Aristida elytrophoroides Chiov.
  • Aristida longicauda Hack.
  • Aristida rangei Pilg.
  • Aristida tunetana Coss.
  • Aristida tunetana var. intermedia Maire
  • Chaetaria congesta (Roem. & Schult.) Nees

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.