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.
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 8 botanical countries
| Region | TDWG code | Continent |
|---|---|---|
| Andaman Is. | AND | ASIA-TROPICAL |
| Bangladesh | BAN | |
| Cambodia | CBD | |
| India | IND | |
| Laos | LAO | |
| Myanmar | MYA | |
| Thailand | THA | |
| Vietnam | VIE |
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 163 observations
| Condition | 5th percentile | Median | 95th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coldest month, mean daily low | 9.2 °C | 14.2 °C | 23.4 °C |
| Warmest month, mean daily high | 26.1 °C | 31.4 °C | 41.3 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 741 mm | 2,111 mm | 4,280 mm |
| Rainfall in the driest quarter | 11 mm | 53 mm | 331 mm |
It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 163 research-grade observations of Chrysopogon zizanioides 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 26 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 verticillata Lam.
- Anatherum muricatum (Retz.) P.Beauv.
- Anatherum zizanioides (L.) Hitchc. & Chase
- Andropogon aromaticus Roxb. ex Schult.
- Andropogon muricatum Retz.
- Andropogon muricatus Retz.
- Andropogon nardus Trin.
- Andropogon odoratus Steud.
- Andropogon zizanioides (L.) Urb.
- Chamaeraphis muricata (Retz.) Merr.
- Holcus zizanioides (L.) Stuck.
- Oplismenus abortivus Roem. & Schult.
- Phalaris zizanioides L.
- Rhaphis muricata Nees
- Rhaphis zizanioides (L.) Roberty
- Sorghum zizanioides (L.) Kuntze
- Sorghum zizanodes Kuntze
- Vetiveria arundinacea Griseb.
- Vetiveria muricata (Retz.) Griseb.
- Vetiveria odorata Virey
- Vetiveria odoratissima Lem.-Lis.
- Vetiveria odoratissima Bory ex Cloquet
- Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash
- Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Stapf.
and 2 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.
- USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol VEZI80. public domain. 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.