Calamagrostis lapponica(Wahlenb.) Hartm.

Lapland Reedgrasslapland reedgrass

WFO wfo-0000857564 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 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 lapponica, photographed by nina_nesterova
fig. a nina_nesterova, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-07-20 / obs. 160642682
Calamagrostis lapponica, photographed by nina_nesterova
fig. b nina_nesterova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160642666
Calamagrostis lapponica, photographed by nina_nesterova
fig. c nina_nesterova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160703325
Calamagrostis lapponica, photographed by nina_nesterova
fig. d nina_nesterova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160703298
Calamagrostis lapponica, photographed by Алексей Ябс
fig. e Алексей Ябс, CC0 1.0 / obs. 149859692
Calamagrostis lapponica, photographed by Алексей Ябс
fig. f Алексей Ябс, CC0 1.0 / obs. 149859708
Calamagrostis lapponica, photographed by Yurii Basov
fig. g Yurii Basov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156275724
Calamagrostis lapponica, photographed by Yurii Basov
fig. h Yurii Basov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156275701

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 3318565
Filed as
Calamagrostis lapponica (Wahlenb.) Hartm.
Det. by
Soreng, Robert J., Research Associate (BOT), Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History (UNITED STATES)
Collected
P. M. Peterson & C. R. Annable 1994-08-25
Origin
US
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 39 botanical countries

Regions where Calamagrostis lapponica is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Irkutsk, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Magadan, Manchuria, Mongolia, Primorye, Sakhalin, Tibet, Tuva, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, East European Russia, Finland, North European Russia, Norway, Sweden, Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, Greenland, Labrador, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Québec, Saskatchewan, Yukon AltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChitaInner MongoliaIrkutskKamchatkaKhabarovskKrasnoyarskMagadanManchuriaMongoliaPrimoryeSakhalinTibetTuvaWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaEast European RussiaFinlandNorth European RussiaNorwaySwedenAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaGreenlandLabradorManitobaNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioQuébecSaskatchewanYukon Korea
Native distribution of Calamagrostis lapponica, 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
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Irkutsk IRK
Kamchatka KAM
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Magadan MAG
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
Tibet CHT
Tuva TVA
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
British Columbia BRC
Greenland GNL
Labrador LAB
Manitoba MAN
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
Yukon YUK
East European Russia RUE EUROPE
Finland FIN
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
Sweden SWE

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 30 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -35.4 °C -29.3 °C -12.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 11.7 °C 16.7 °C 20.8 °C
Annual rainfall 367 mm 682 mm 1,184 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 27 mm 70 mm 163 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 30 research-grade observations of Calamagrostis lapponica 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 14 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.

  • Arundo lapponica Wahlenb.
  • Calamagrostis gorodkovii V.N.Vassil.
  • Calamagrostis henriettae Petrov
  • Calamagrostis lancea Ohwi
  • Calamagrostis lapponica f. effusior Norm.
  • Calamagrostis lapponica subsp. sibirica (Petrov) Tzvelev
  • Calamagrostis lapponica var. burjatica Galanin
  • Calamagrostis lapponica var. gorodkowii Litv. ex Krylov
  • Calamagrostis lapponica var. groenlandica Lange
  • Calamagrostis lapponica var. nearctica A.E.Porsild
  • Calamagrostis lapponica var. opima Hartm.
  • Calamagrostis pseudolapponica V.N.Vassil.
  • Calamagrostis sibirica Petrov
  • Deyeuxia lapponica (Wahlenb.) Kunth

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.