Cynosurus cristatusL.

Crested dogstail grasscrested dogstail grass

WFO wfo-0000861316 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Cynosurus cristatus, photographed by lauraclapham
fig. a lauraclapham, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-10 / obs. 205998512
Cynosurus cristatus, photographed by Thomas Ebner
fig. b Thomas Ebner, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203758600
Cynosurus cristatus, photographed by Yann Kemper
fig. c Yann Kemper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 203008014
Cynosurus cristatus, photographed by David Carey
fig. d David Carey, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203326029
Cynosurus cristatus, photographed by David Lazarus
fig. e David Lazarus, CC0 1.0 / obs. 200945142
Cynosurus cristatus, photographed by Thomas Ebner
fig. f Thomas Ebner, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200685389
Cynosurus cristatus, photographed by Gabriel Mayrhofer
fig. g Gabriel Mayrhofer, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202195488
Cynosurus cristatus, photographed by Jenny Saito
fig. h Jenny Saito, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176869569

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 41 botanical countries

Regions where Cynosurus cristatus is native: Azores, Iran, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine IranNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyKritiKrymNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine AzoresSardegna
Native distribution of Cynosurus cristatus, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Iran IRN ASIA-TEMPERATE
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Azores AZO AFRICA

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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 118 in flower of 197 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Cynosurus cristatus 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. 118 of 197 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 4 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 18 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.

  • Cynosurus cristatus f. pratensis (Opiz) Soó
  • Cynosurus cristatus f. tenuis (Opiz) Soó
  • Cynosurus cristatus f. tenuissimus (Schur) Morariu
  • Cynosurus cristatus var. ciliatus Guss.
  • Cynosurus cristatus var. coloratus Rohlena
  • Cynosurus cristatus var. foliosus Bolzon
  • Cynosurus cristatus var. giganteus Mutel
  • Cynosurus cristatus var. ovatus Asch. & Graebn.
  • Cynosurus cristatus var. tenuissimus Schur
  • Cynosurus cristatus var. tetragonus Gray
  • Cynosurus cristatus var. viviparus Koeler
  • Cynosurus neglectus Opiz
  • Cynosurus neglectus f. tenuis Opiz
  • Cynosurus neglectus var. communis Opiz
  • Cynosurus neglectus var. pratensis Opiz
  • Cynosurus neglectus var. tenuis Opiz
  • Cynosurus spiralis Lojac.
  • Phleum cristatum (L.) Scop.

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.