Bulbostylis paradoxa(Spreng.) Lindm.

WFO wfo-0000342288 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Bulbostylis paradoxa, photographed by Tsssss
fig. a Tsssss, CC0 1.0 / 2020-07-07 / obs. 93361979
Bulbostylis paradoxa, photographed by Tsssss
fig. b Tsssss, CC0 1.0 / obs. 92992246
Bulbostylis paradoxa, photographed by Tsssss
fig. c Tsssss, CC0 1.0 / obs. 93362011
Bulbostylis paradoxa, photographed by Kristof Zyskowski
fig. d Kristof Zyskowski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58903098
Bulbostylis paradoxa, photographed by Vincent A. Vos
fig. e Vincent A. Vos, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 110197338
Bulbostylis paradoxa, photographed by Tsssss
fig. f Tsssss, CC0 1.0 / obs. 94153053
Bulbostylis paradoxa, photographed by Tsssss
fig. g Tsssss, CC0 1.0 / obs. 94153132
Bulbostylis paradoxa, photographed by Kristof Zyskowski
fig. h Kristof Zyskowski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58902822

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
01174208
Filed as
Bulbostylis paradoxa (Spreng.) Lindm.
Det. by
T. M. Koyama 1981-01-01
Collected
D. F. Austin 1979-10-18
Origin
BR
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 20 botanical countries

Regions where Bulbostylis paradoxa is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, French Guiana, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Suriname, Venezuela Mexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaFrench GuianaGuyanaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáSurinameVenezuela
Native distribution of Bulbostylis paradoxa, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
French Guiana FRG
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Suriname SUR
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

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 102 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 12.5 °C 16.5 °C 22.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.0 °C 29.2 °C 33.9 °C
Annual rainfall 1,260 mm 1,768 mm 2,693 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 10 mm 44 mm 239 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 102 research-grade observations of Bulbostylis paradoxa 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 11 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 paradoxa (Spreng.) Lye
  • Bulbostylis spadicea Kük.
  • Eriocaulon sphacelatum Willd. ex Kunth
  • Fimbristylis paradoxa (Spreng.) Alain
  • Isolepis paradoxa (Spreng.) Kunth
  • Oncostylis paradoxa (Spreng.) Nees
  • Rhynchospora perrigida Boeckeler
  • Schoenus paradoxus Spreng.
  • Schoenus spadiceus Kunth
  • Scirpus paradoxus (Spreng.) Boeckeler
  • Stenophyllus paradoxus (Spreng.) Standl.

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.