Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations
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 71 botanical countries
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 516 observations
| Condition | 5th percentile | Median | 95th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coldest month, mean daily low | -15.3 °C | -6.4 °C | 14.4 °C |
| Warmest month, mean daily high | 20.8 °C | 25.5 °C | 31.6 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 819 mm | 1,236 mm | 3,395 mm |
| Rainfall in the driest quarter | 67 mm | 266 mm | 573 mm |
It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 516 research-grade observations of Bulbostylis capillaris 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 57 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.
- Abildgaardia capillaris (L.) Lye
- Bulbostylis antillana (Britton) Fernald
- Bulbostylis capillaris f. minima (Maury) R.Knuth
- Bulbostylis capillaris subsp. major Uittien
- Bulbostylis capillaris var. capillaris
- Bulbostylis capillaris var. crebra Fernald
- Bulbostylis capillaris var. genuina Osten
- Bulbostylis capillaris var. isopoda Fernald
- Bulbostylis capillaris var. major (Maury) R.Knuth
- Bulbostylis capillaris var. microstachys (Boeckeler) Barros
- Bulbostylis capillaris var. pyriformis C.B.Clarke ex Lindm.
- Bulbostylis ciliata (J.Presl & C.Presl) Nees ex B.D.Jacks.
- Bulbostylis schraderiana (Steud.) Beetle
- Bulbostylis trichoides (Schrad. ex Schult.) Beetle
- Cyperus minimus L.
- Cyperus pubescens Steud.
- Cyperus pubifolius Steud.
- Fimbristylis capillaris (L.) A.Gray
- Fimbristylis capillaris f. major Maury
- Fimbristylis capillaris f. minima Maury
- Fimbristylis capillaris var. major Maury
- Fimbristylis coarctata Schwein.
- Fimbristylis tenella Raddi
- Iria capillaris (L.) Kuntze
and 33 more.
Sourcesevery claim on this page
- World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
- iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
- Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- 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.