Cynosurus echinatusL.

bristly dogtail grass

WFO wfo-0000861333 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Cynosurus echinatus, photographed by CorentinD
fig. a CorentinD, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-28 / obs. 201342265
Cynosurus echinatus, photographed by Ellyne Geurts
fig. b Ellyne Geurts, CC0 1.0 / obs. 195223832
Cynosurus echinatus, photographed by Rosalie Lawrence
fig. c Rosalie Lawrence, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191542196
Cynosurus echinatus, photographed by David Delon
fig. d David Delon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202783222
Cynosurus echinatus, photographed by Erin Springinotic
fig. e Erin Springinotic, CC0 1.0 / obs. 179662110
Cynosurus echinatus, photographed by Quentin Groom
fig. f Quentin Groom, CC0 1.0 / obs. 198076608
Cynosurus echinatus, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. g Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 174162651
Cynosurus echinatus, photographed by John Barkla
fig. h John Barkla, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183679590

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.

Flowering n = 246 observations

Peak flowering in Jun, from 246 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 25 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.

  • Chrysurus echinatus (L.) P.Beauv.
  • Chrysurus echinatus var. purpurascens Ten.
  • Chrysurus echinatus var. purpureus Gray
  • Chrysurus giganteus Ten.
  • Cynosurus castagnei Jord. ex Martrin-Donos
  • Cynosurus echinatus f. foliosus Bolzon
  • Cynosurus echinatus subsp. hystrix (Pomel) Trab.
  • Cynosurus echinatus subsp. purpurascens (Ten.) Arcang.
  • Cynosurus echinatus var. diklicii Gajic
  • Cynosurus echinatus var. erroneus (Jord. ex Martrin-Donos) Gaut.
  • Cynosurus echinatus var. giganteus (Ten.) Mutel
  • Cynosurus echinatus var. hystrix (Pomel) Maire
  • Cynosurus echinatus var. oblongus Mutel
  • Cynosurus echinatus var. purpureus P.Palau
  • Cynosurus echinatus var. tangerinus Pau
  • Cynosurus echinatus var. thracicus Podp.
  • Cynosurus effusus var. hystrix (Pomel) Maire
  • Cynosurus erroneus Jord. ex Martrin-Donos
  • Cynosurus giganteus Nyman
  • Cynosurus hystrix Pomel
  • Cynosurus pygmaeus Porta
  • Falona echinata (L.) Dumort.
  • Phalona castagnei Fourr.
  • Phalona echinata (L.) Dumort.

and 1 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.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.