Briza maximaL.

Greater Quaking Grass

WFO wfo-0000854743 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Briza maxima, photographed by Rafael Medina
fig. a Rafael Medina, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-06 / obs. 203868843
Briza maxima, photographed by Northcut
fig. b Northcut, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205667036
Briza maxima, photographed by Se Lena
fig. c Se Lena, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201228274
Briza maxima, photographed by Dominic Gentilcore
fig. d Dominic Gentilcore, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202362249
Briza maxima, photographed by Karen Fry
fig. e Karen Fry, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201329606
Briza maxima, photographed by Cassian
fig. f Cassian, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200948417
Briza maxima, photographed by Amthinkia
fig. g Amthinkia, CC0 1.0 / obs. 201778875
Briza maxima, photographed by rappman
fig. h rappman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200351440

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.

Flowering n = 500 observations

Peak flowering in May, from 500 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 27 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.

  • Briza capensis Schrank
  • Briza dalmatica Gand.
  • Briza gracilescens Gand.
  • Briza grandis Salisb.
  • Briza major C.Presl
  • Briza maxima f. concolor Maire & Weiller
  • Briza maxima f. discolor Maire & Weiller
  • Briza maxima f. rubra (Lam.) Maire
  • Briza maxima f. unicolor Maire & Weiller
  • Briza maxima var. fusca Merino
  • Briza maxima var. glabriflora Rohlena
  • Briza maxima var. hirsuta Doum.
  • Briza maxima var. monspessulana (Gouan) Gouan ex Koel.
  • Briza maxima var. monspessulana (Gouan) Griseb.
  • Briza maxima var. pubescens (Doum.) Nicotra
  • Briza maxima var. pubescens Mutel
  • Briza maxima var. rubra (Lam.) Asch. & Graebn.
  • Briza microclada Gand.
  • Briza monspessulana Gouan
  • Briza montana Brouss.
  • Briza portenschlagii Gand.
  • Briza pulchella Kunth ex Steud.
  • Briza pulchella Kunth
  • Briza rubens Poir.

and 3 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.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.