Brachypodium retusum(Pers.) P.Beauv.

WFO wfo-0000854576 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Brachypodium retusum, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. a Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-14 / obs. 197716433
Brachypodium retusum, photographed by David Delon
fig. b David Delon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 195433517
Brachypodium retusum, photographed by David Delon
fig. c David Delon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188542622
Brachypodium retusum, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. d Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188708937
Brachypodium retusum, photographed by David Delon
fig. e David Delon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181668639
Brachypodium retusum, photographed by David Delon
fig. f David Delon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181668670
Brachypodium retusum, photographed by David Delon
fig. g David Delon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176123724
Brachypodium retusum, photographed by Julien Renoult
fig. h Julien Renoult, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169697314

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 Brachypodium retusum is native: Algeria, Ethiopia, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Saudi Arabia, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Yemen, Albania, Baleares, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain AlgeriaEthiopiaLibyaMoroccoTunisiaEast Aegean Is.Lebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusSaudi ArabiaTranscaucasusTürkiyeYemenAlbaniaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpain BalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Brachypodium retusum, 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
Baleares BAL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
East Aegean Is. EAI ASIA-TEMPERATE
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Saudi Arabia SAU
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Yemen YEM
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Ethiopia ETH
Libya LBY
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

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 988 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -0.7 °C 3.6 °C 10.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.6 °C 27.9 °C 30.8 °C
Annual rainfall 385 mm 692 mm 1,069 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 30 mm 87 mm 145 mm

It is found where winters bring light 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 988 research-grade observations of Brachypodium retusum 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 42 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.

  • Brachypodium allionii C.Presl
  • Brachypodium bofillii Sennen
  • Brachypodium boissieri Nyman
  • Brachypodium boissieri f. aristatum H.Lindb.
  • Brachypodium caespitosum (Desf.) C.Presl
  • Brachypodium capillifolium Sennen
  • Brachypodium cespitosum var. ramosum (Roth) Benth.
  • Brachypodium hostii Link
  • Brachypodium mucronatum Willk.
  • Brachypodium obtusifolium Link
  • Brachypodium phoenicoides var. bracteolatum Guss.
  • Brachypodium phoenicoides var. mucronatum (Willk.) Henriq.
  • Brachypodium pinnatum var. mucronatum (Willk.) Pérez Lara
  • Brachypodium pinnatum var. ramosum (Roem. & Schult.) Fiori
  • Brachypodium plukenetii (All.) C.Presl
  • Brachypodium ramosum Roem. & Schult.
  • Brachypodium ramosum f. capillaceum Maire
  • Brachypodium ramosum f. plukenetii (All.) Hayek
  • Brachypodium ramosum subsp. boissieri (Boiss.) St.-Yves
  • Brachypodium ramosum subsp. boissieri (Nyman) Nyman
  • Brachypodium ramosum subsp. euramosum St.-Yves
  • Brachypodium ramosum subvar. anatherum St.-Yves
  • Brachypodium ramosum subvar. bofillianum St.-Yves
  • Brachypodium ramosum subvar. genuinum Litard.

and 18 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. 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.