Bothriochloa bladhii(Retz.) S.T.Blake

Caucasian bluestem

WFO wfo-0000853759 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Bothriochloa bladhii, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. a Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-10 / obs. 196738506

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
206844
Filed as
Bothriochloa bladhii (Retz.) S.T.Blake
Det. by
D. H. Lorence 2008-06-06
Collected
D. H. Lorence 2008-01-16
Origin
PW
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 78 botanical countries

Regions where Bothriochloa bladhii is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Cape Verde, Chad, DR Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Réunion, Rodrigues, Senegal, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Nansei-shoto, North Caucasus, Oman, Tadzhikistan, Taiwan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang, Yemen, Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Pakistan, Philippines, South China Sea, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Wallis-Futuna Is. AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesChadDR CongoEswatiniEthiopiaGhanaIvory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMalawiMaliMozambiqueNamibiaNigeriaNorthern ProvincesSenegalSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweAfghanistanChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanIranKazakhstanKirgizstanNorth CaucasusOmanTadzhikistanTaiwanTranscaucasusTürkiyeUzbekistanXinjiangYemenAssamBangladeshBorneoEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPakistanPhilippinesSri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNew South WalesNorthern TerritoryQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern Australia Cape VerdeMauritiusRéunionRodriguesNansei-shotoSouth China SeaWallis-Futuna Is.
Native distribution of Bothriochloa bladhii, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Cape Verde CVI
Chad CHA
DR Congo ZAI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Ghana GHA
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritius MAU
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Réunion REU
Rodrigues ROD
Senegal SEN
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
South China Sea SCS
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Iran IRN
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Nansei-shoto NNS
North Caucasus NCS
Oman OMA
Tadzhikistan TZK
Taiwan TAI
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Uzbekistan UZB
Xinjiang CHX
Yemen YEM
New South Wales NSW AUSTRALASIA
Northern Territory NTA
Queensland QLD
South Australia SOA
Western Australia WAU
Wallis-Futuna Is. WAL PACIFIC

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 53 in flower of 63 examined

Proportion of examined Bothriochloa bladhii in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 5 6 83% 44% to 97%
Feb 2 2 too few examined
Mar 4 5 80% 38% to 96%
Apr 7 10 70% 40% to 89%
May 2 2 too few examined
Jun 3 3 too few examined
Jul 1 1 too few examined
Aug 0 1 too few examined
Sep 4 5 80% 38% to 96%
Oct 14 16 88% 64% to 97%
Nov 8 9 89% 56% to 98%
Dec 3 3 too few examined

Peak flowering in Nov. Each bar is the share of Bothriochloa bladhii 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. 53 of 63 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. 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 1,004 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 3.2 °C 8.0 °C 19.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 28.1 °C 33.1 °C 35.0 °C
Annual rainfall 722 mm 1,215 mm 2,285 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 56 mm 183 mm 274 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,004 research-grade observations of Bothriochloa bladhii 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.

Named cultivars 1 recorded

Selections of Bothriochloa bladhii that somebody named and propagated. A cultivar is not a botanical taxon: it is governed by the cultivated-plant code rather than the botanical one, so it appears in no taxonomic backbone, and it has no native range and no wild population of its own. These get no page here, because a cultivar has no photographs, no range and no flowering data of its own, and a page with none of those is not a page.

From Wikidata (CC0), joined to this species on its World Flora Online identifier, so the link to the parent is exact rather than a name match. This list is what is recorded in an openly licensed register; it is not every cultivar that exists, and for many genera it is not close. Why, and how far short it falls.

Also published as 63 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.

  • Amphilophis glabra var. haenkei (J.Presl) E.G.Camus & A.Camus
  • Amphilophis haenkei (J.Presl) Haines
  • Amphilophis insculpta var. vegetior (Hack.) Stapf
  • Amphilophis intermedia (R.Br.) Stapf
  • Amphilophis intermedia var. acidula (Stapf) Stapf
  • Amphilophis odorata (Lisboa) A.Camus
  • Anatherum montanum (Roxb.) Schult.
  • Andropogon annulatus var. bladhii (Retz.) Hack.
  • Andropogon bladhii Retz.
  • Andropogon caucasicus Trin.
  • Andropogon glaber var. haenkei (J.Presl) A.Camus
  • Andropogon haenkei J.Presl
  • Andropogon intermedius R.Br.
  • Andropogon intermedius subvar. perfossus Hack.
  • Andropogon intermedius var. acidula Stapf
  • Andropogon intermedius var. acidulus Stapf
  • Andropogon intermedius var. caucasicus (Trin.) Hack.
  • Andropogon intermedius var. genuinus Hack.
  • Andropogon intermedius var. haenkei (J.Presl) Hack.
  • Andropogon intermedius var. haenkii (J.Presl) Hack.
  • Andropogon intermedius var. inundatus (F.Muell.) Hack.
  • Andropogon intermedius var. punctatus (Roxb.) Hack.
  • Andropogon inundatus F.Muell.
  • Andropogon leptanthus Steud.

and 39 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.