Bothriochloa pertusa(L.) A.Camus

pitted beardgrass

WFO wfo-0000853828 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Bothriochloa pertusa, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. a Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-03-02 / obs. 183223721
Bothriochloa pertusa, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. b Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183223689
Bothriochloa pertusa, photographed by Douglas Goldman
fig. c Douglas Goldman, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 176677161
Bothriochloa pertusa, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. d Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 125098390
Bothriochloa pertusa, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. e Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 120570604
Bothriochloa pertusa, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. f Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193549763
Bothriochloa pertusa, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. g Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183223748
Bothriochloa pertusa, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. h Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183223592

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 Bothriochloa pertusa is native: Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Afghanistan, China South-Central, China Southeast, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, India, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicobar Is., Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Northern Territory, Queensland, Fiji, Marianas, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is. MadagascarAfghanistanChina South-CentralChina SoutheastAssamBangladeshIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMyanmarNepalPakistanSri LankaThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNorthern TerritoryQueenslandFijiNew Caledonia ComorosMauritiusRéunionRodriguesSeychellesAndaman Is.Nicobar Is.MarianasSamoaTongaVanuatuWallis-Futuna Is.
Native distribution of Bothriochloa pertusa, 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
India IND
Jawa JAW
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Nicobar Is. NCB
Pakistan PAK
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
Fiji FIJ PACIFIC
Marianas MRN
New Caledonia NWC
Samoa SAM
Tonga TON
Vanuatu VAN
Wallis-Futuna Is. WAL
Comoros COM AFRICA
Madagascar MDG
Mauritius MAU
Réunion REU
Rodrigues ROD
Seychelles SEY
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD

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 523 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 8.8 °C 20.4 °C 23.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.5 °C 27.9 °C 33.3 °C
Annual rainfall 648 mm 882 mm 1,978 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 29 mm 105 mm 257 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 523 research-grade observations of Bothriochloa pertusa 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 13 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 pertusa (L.) Stapf
  • Amphilophis pertusa var. barbata (A.Camus) E.G.Camus & A.Camus
  • Andropogon armillaris Willd. ex Steud.
  • Andropogon pertusus (L.) Willd.
  • Andropogon pertusus var. barbatus A.Camus
  • Andropogon pertusus var. wightii Hack.
  • Bothriochloa nana W.Z.Fang
  • Dichanthium ischaemum subvar. pertusum (L.) Roberty
  • Dichanthium pertusum (L.) Clayton
  • Elionurus pertusus Nees ex Steud.
  • Holcus pertusus L.
  • Lepeocercis pertusa (L.) Hassk.
  • Sorghum pertusum (L.) Kuntze

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.