Curculigo orchioidesGaertn.

golden eye-grass

WFO wfo-0000764802 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Curculigo orchioides, photographed by Hopeland
fig. a Hopeland, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-21 / obs. 198302467
Curculigo orchioides, photographed by Paulmathi Vinod
fig. b Paulmathi Vinod, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183513765
Curculigo orchioides, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. c Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 155828556
Curculigo orchioides, photographed by 葉子
fig. d 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 43791781
Curculigo orchioides, photographed by Ramesh Shenai Jr.
fig. e Ramesh Shenai Jr., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 81321981
Curculigo orchioides, photographed by Yj
fig. f Yj, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 16185662
Curculigo orchioides, photographed by Siddarth Machado
fig. g Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 42960504
Curculigo orchioides, photographed by Ajit Ampalakkad
fig. h Ajit Ampalakkad, CC0 1.0 / obs. 47027787

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 33 botanical countries

Regions where Curculigo orchioides is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Pakistan, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Caroline Is., Marianas, New Caledonia, Vanuatu China South-CentralChina SoutheastJapanTaiwanAssamBangladeshBorneoCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPakistanPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNew Caledonia Nansei-shotoAndaman Is.Nicobar Is.Caroline Is.MarianasVanuatu
Native distribution of Curculigo orchioides, 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
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Japan JAP
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Marianas MRN
New Caledonia NWC
Vanuatu VAN

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.

Flowering 51 in flower of 53 examined

Peak flowering in May. Each bar is the share of Curculigo orchioides observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 51 of 53 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 13 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.

  • Curculigo brevifolia Dryand. ex W.T.Aiton
  • Curculigo densa W.Bull
  • Curculigo firma Kotschy & Peyr.
  • Curculigo malabarica Wight
  • Curculigo orchioides var. minor Benth.
  • Curculigo pauciflora Zipp. ex Span.
  • Curculigo petiolata Royle
  • Curculigo stans Labill.
  • Franquevillea major Zoll. ex Kurz
  • Gethyllis acaulis Blanco
  • Hypoxis dulcis Steud. ex Baker
  • Hypoxis minor Seem.
  • Hypoxis orchioides (Gaertn.) Kurz

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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol CUOR3. public domain. 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.