Calamagrostis arundinacea(L.) Roth

WFO wfo-0000856995 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC0 / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 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.

Calamagrostis arundinacea, photographed by harum.koh
fig. a harum.koh, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2015-11-03 / obs. 2635541
Calamagrostis arundinacea, photographed by harum.koh
fig. b harum.koh, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 2635548
Calamagrostis arundinacea, photographed by harum.koh
fig. c harum.koh, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 2635542
Calamagrostis arundinacea, photographed by Viola Alekseeva
fig. d Viola Alekseeva, CC0 1.0 / obs. 153074014
Calamagrostis arundinacea, photographed by Viola Alekseeva
fig. e Viola Alekseeva, CC0 1.0 / obs. 153074035

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
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 3600677
Filed as
Calamagrostis arundinacea (L.) Roth
Det. by
Soreng, Robert J., Research Associate (BOT), Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History (UNITED STATES)
Collected
R. J. Soreng, D. Johnson, P. Johnson, N. Dzyubenko & E. Dzyubenko 2010-08-06
Origin
RU
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

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 58 botanical countries

Regions where Calamagrostis arundinacea is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Japan, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Manchuria, North Caucasus, Primorye, Qinghai, Sakhalin, Taiwan, Tibet, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Xinjiang, East Himalaya, New Guinea, Philippines, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine AltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskJapanKazakhstanKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeQinghaiSakhalinTaiwanTibetTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaXinjiangEast HimalayaNew GuineaPhilippinesWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine Korea
Native distribution of Calamagrostis arundinacea, 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
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Qinghai CHQ
Sakhalin SAK
Taiwan TAI
Tibet CHT
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
East Himalaya EHM ASIA-TROPICAL
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
West Himalaya WHM

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 1,995 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -25.7 °C -11.8 °C -4.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 20.0 °C 22.9 °C 24.2 °C
Annual rainfall 387 mm 634 mm 857 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 29 mm 100 mm 138 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,995 research-grade observations of Calamagrostis arundinacea 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 134 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.

  • Agrostis arundinacea L.
  • Agrostis pseudoarundinacea Schleich. ex Gaudin
  • Arundo agrostis Scop.
  • Arundo clarionis Loisel.
  • Arundo montana Gaudin
  • Arundo sylvatica Schrad.
  • Athernotus pyramidalis (Host) Dulac
  • Calamagrostis abietina Schur
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea f. effusa I.C.Chung
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea f. rufescens Matuszk.
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea f. turfosa (Schur) Soó
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea subsp. brachytricha (Steud.) Tzvelev
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea subsp. distantiflora (Luchnik) Tzvelev
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea subsp. heterogluma (Nakai) T.Koyama
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea subsp. hymenoglossa (Ohwi) T.Koyama
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea subsp. monticola (Petrov ex Kom.) Tzvelev
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea subsp. sugawarae (Ohwi) Tzvelev
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea var. alpina (Schur) Serb. & Beldie
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea var. austro-jeholensis (Honda) Kitag.
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea var. brachytricha (Steud.) Hack.
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea var. ciliata Honda
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea var. densa Honda
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea var. grandiflora Litv.
  • Calamagrostis arundinacea var. grandis Blytt

and 110 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.