Cleistogenes serotina(L.) Keng

WFO wfo-0000860268 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 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.

Cleistogenes serotina, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. a Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-26 / obs. 159918458
Cleistogenes serotina, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. b Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159918494
Cleistogenes serotina, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. c Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159917792
Cleistogenes serotina, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. d Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159918409
Cleistogenes serotina, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. e Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159918009
Cleistogenes serotina, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. f Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159918036
Cleistogenes serotina, photographed by Иван Ковтун Ivan Kovtun
fig. g Иван Ковтун Ivan Kovtun, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 142124760
Cleistogenes serotina, photographed by Иван Ковтун Ivan Kovtun
fig. h Иван Ковтун Ivan Kovtun, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 142124797

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 22 botanical countries

Regions where Cleistogenes serotina is native: Kazakhstan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia-Slovakia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine KazakhstanNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaCzechia-SlovakiaFranceGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine
Native distribution of Cleistogenes serotina, 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
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Kazakhstan KAZ ASIA-TEMPERATE
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM

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 142 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -6.4 °C -1.7 °C 4.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.2 °C 26.2 °C 29.3 °C
Annual rainfall 498 mm 844 mm 1,866 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 83 mm 145 mm 311 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 142 research-grade observations of Cleistogenes serotina 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 19 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 serotina (L.) L.
  • Bromus strictus Scop.
  • Cleistogenes bulgarica (Bornm.) Keng
  • Cleistogenes bulgarica f. pseudosquarrosa Klokov & Zoz
  • Cleistogenes maeotica Klokov & Zoz
  • Cleistogenes serotina subsp. bulgarica (Bornm.) Tutin
  • Diplachne bulgarica (Bornm.) Bornm.
  • Diplachne maeotica Klokov & Zoz
  • Diplachne patula St.-Lag.
  • Diplachne serotina (L.) Link
  • Diplachne serotina subsp. bulgarica Bornm.
  • Diplachne serotina var. clandestina Balansa
  • Festuca serotina L.
  • Kengia bulgarica (Bornm.) Packer
  • Kengia maeotica (Klokov & Zoz) Packer
  • Kengia serotina (L.) Packer
  • Melica nodosa Piller & Mitterp.
  • Molinia serotina (L.) Mert. & W.D.J.Koch
  • Schedonorus serotinus (L.) P.Beauv.

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.