Arrhenatherum elatius(L.) P.Beauv. ex J.Presl & C.Presl

False Oat-grasstall oatgrass

WFO wfo-0000849608 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Arrhenatherum elatius, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. a Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205536004
Arrhenatherum elatius, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. b Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205526156
Arrhenatherum elatius, photographed by Grzegorz Grzejszczak
fig. c Grzegorz Grzejszczak, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 204833721
Arrhenatherum elatius, photographed by Yann Kemper
fig. d Yann Kemper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 203955096
Arrhenatherum elatius, photographed by Yann Kemper
fig. e Yann Kemper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202769512
Arrhenatherum elatius, photographed by Enrico Tomschke
fig. f Enrico Tomschke, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201558845
Arrhenatherum elatius, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. g Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201015834
Arrhenatherum elatius, photographed by SK53
fig. h SK53, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 200819310

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 54 botanical countries

Regions where Arrhenatherum elatius is native: Algeria, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Morocco, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Krym, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaMoroccoCyprusIranIraqKazakhstanKirgizstanLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIcelandIrelandItalyKrymNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine AzoresCanary Is.MadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Arrhenatherum elatius, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Iceland ICE
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Canary Is. CNY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR

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.

Flowering 258 in flower of 555 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Arrhenatherum elatius observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 258 of 555 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,953 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -10.8 °C -3.2 °C 3.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 18.0 °C 23.1 °C 27.4 °C
Annual rainfall 549 mm 723 mm 1,386 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 84 mm 135 mm 261 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 1,953 research-grade observations of Arrhenatherum elatius 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 118 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.

  • Arrhenatherum album subsp. cypricola H.Scholz
  • Arrhenatherum almijarense Gand.
  • Arrhenatherum americanum P.Beauv.
  • Arrhenatherum asperum Opiz
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum P.Beauv.
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum f. submuticum (Gray) Peterm.
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum subsp. rupestre Dumort.
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum var. aristatum (Gray) Steud.
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum var. bulbosum (Willd.) Hartm.
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum var. glaucum Beck
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum var. nodosum Rchb.
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum var. palustris Roem. & Schult.
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum var. pauciflorum Peterm.
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum var. piliferum Beck
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum var. precatorium (Thuill.) Peterm.
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum var. subconforme Schur
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum var. submuticum Peterm.
  • Arrhenatherum avenaceum var. triflorum Schur
  • Arrhenatherum baeticum (Romero Zarco) Brullo, Miniss. & Spamp.
  • Arrhenatherum biaristatum Peterm.
  • Arrhenatherum bulbosum (Willd.) C.Presl
  • Arrhenatherum bulbosum f. variegatum Hitchc.
  • Arrhenatherum bulbosum var. precatorium (Thuill.) Steud.
  • Arrhenatherum bulbosum var. variegatum Hitchc.

and 94 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.