Chrysopogon gryllus(L.) Trin.

WFO wfo-0000859844 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs 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.

Chrysopogon gryllus, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. a Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-06-20 / obs. 140222010

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 3717029
Filed as
Chrysopogon gryllus (L.) Trin.
Det. by
Soreng, Robert J., Research Associate (BOT), Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History (UNITED STATES)
Collected
L. J. Gillespie, E. Cabi, R. J. Soreng & K. Boudko 2011-06-24
Origin
TR
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 33 botanical countries

Regions where Chrysopogon gryllus is native: Afghanistan, China South-Central, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Tibet, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Assam, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia-Slovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AfghanistanChina South-CentralCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesIranIraqLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusTibetTranscaucasusTürkiyeAssamEast HimalayaIndiaNepalPakistanThailandWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaCzechia-SlovakiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine
Native distribution of Chrysopogon gryllus, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Bulgaria BUL
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
Cyprus CYP
East Aegean Is. EAI
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Tibet CHT
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Nepal NEP
Pakistan PAK
Thailand THA
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 297 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -5.6 °C -1.9 °C 4.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.4 °C 26.2 °C 29.5 °C
Annual rainfall 505 mm 922 mm 1,973 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 83 mm 135 mm 306 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 297 research-grade observations of Chrysopogon gryllus 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 28 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.

  • Andropogon echinulatus Nees ex Steud.
  • Andropogon glabratus (Trin.) Steud.
  • Andropogon gryllus L.
  • Andropogon gryllus subsp. echinulatus (Nees) Hack.
  • Andropogon gryllus subsp. glabratus (Trin.) Hack.
  • Andropogon gryllus subvar. ramulosus Hack.
  • Andropogon gryllus var. aureus Hegi
  • Andropogon paniculatus Lam.
  • Andropogon royleanus Steud.
  • Chloris gryllus (L.) Honck.
  • Chrysopogon aciculatus var. echinulatus (Nees) S.K.Jain
  • Chrysopogon echinulatus (Nees) Will.Watson
  • Chrysopogon glabratus Trin.
  • Chrysopogon gryllus f. flavescens (Schur) Soó
  • Chrysopogon gryllus subsp. echinulatus (Nees) Cope
  • Chrysopogon gryllus subsp. glabratus (Trin.) Tzvelev
  • Chrysopogon gryllus var. aureus (Hegi) Ghisa
  • Chrysopogon royleanus (Steud.) Will.Watson
  • Chrysopogon verticillatus St.-Lag.
  • Holcus gryllus (L.) R.Br.
  • Pollinia gryllus Spreng.
  • Pollinia gryllus f. flavescens Schur
  • Pollinia gryllus var. flavescens Schur
  • Rhaphis echinulata Nees

and 4 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.