Briza mediaL.

perennial quakinggrassquaking grass

WFO wfo-0000854755 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Briza media, photographed by ahabo
fig. a ahabo, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-10 / obs. 204926352
Briza media, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. b Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204979697
Briza media, photographed by Katrin Simon
fig. c Katrin Simon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200815339
Briza media, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. d Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200563005
Briza media, photographed by Alessia Guggisberg
fig. e Alessia Guggisberg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199353093
Briza media, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. f Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199154730
Briza media, photographed by Jon Mortin
fig. g Jon Mortin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159938641
Briza media, photographed by Matteo Marcandella
fig. h Matteo Marcandella, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153943355

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 55 botanical countries

Regions where Briza media is native: Azores, Canary Is., Morocco, China South-Central, Cyprus, Iran, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, North Caucasus, Tibet, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Assam, East Himalaya, Myanmar, Nepal, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, 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 MoroccoChina South-CentralCyprusIranIrkutskKrasnoyarskNorth CaucasusTibetTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaAssamEast HimalayaMyanmarNepalWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyKrymNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine AzoresCanary Is.FøroyarSardegna
Native distribution of Briza media, 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
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
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
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
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
Cyprus CYP
Iran IRN
Irkutsk IRK
Krasnoyarsk KRA
North Caucasus NCS
Tibet CHT
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
East Himalaya EHM
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
West Himalaya WHM
Azores AZO AFRICA
Canary Is. CNY
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 205 in flower of 337 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Briza media 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. 205 of 337 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.

Also published as 50 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 anceps L. ex Munro
  • Briza australis Prokudin
  • Briza compacta Dreer
  • Briza elatior Sm.
  • Briza elatior var. australia (Prokudin) Tzvelev
  • Briza elatior var. australis (Prokudin) Tzvelev
  • Briza lutescens Foucault
  • Briza media f. intermedia Zapał.
  • Briza media f. murrii Soó
  • Briza media f. pauciflora Asch. & Graebn.
  • Briza media f. pilosa (Schur) Ghisa
  • Briza media f. pumila Junge
  • Briza media f. repens (Roth) Ghisa
  • Briza media f. umbrosa Peterm.
  • Briza media subsp. elatior (Sm.) Rohlena
  • Briza media subvar. glomerulosa Murr
  • Briza media subvar. scabriuscula Podp.
  • Briza media var. albida Lej.
  • Briza media var. alpestris Beck
  • Briza media var. clusii (Desv.) Rouy
  • Briza media var. coarctata Babey
  • Briza media var. dublanensis Zapał.
  • Briza media var. elatior (Sm.) Griseb.
  • Briza media var. gracilenta Podp.

and 26 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.