Eleocharis montevidensisKunth

sand spikerush

WFO wfo-0000405256 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 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.

Eleocharis montevidensis, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. a Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-05-01 / obs. 124961420
Eleocharis montevidensis, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. b Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 17870872
Eleocharis montevidensis, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. c Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 124961323
Eleocharis montevidensis, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. d Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 17870906
Eleocharis montevidensis, photographed by Millie Basden
fig. e Millie Basden, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 15714856
Eleocharis montevidensis, photographed by CK2AZ
fig. f CK2AZ, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 39580372
Eleocharis montevidensis, photographed by Amy Huie
fig. g Amy Huie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 16530731
Eleocharis montevidensis, photographed by Madeleine Claire
fig. h Madeleine Claire, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 124596887

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 28 botanical countries

Regions where Eleocharis montevidensis is native: Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil South, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Uruguay AlabamaArizonaCaliforniaFloridaGeorgiaKansasLouisianaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestMississippiNew MexicoNorth CarolinaOklahomaSouth CarolinaTexasArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil SouthGuatemalaHondurasPeruUruguay
Native distribution of Eleocharis montevidensis, 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
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
California CAL
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Kansas KAN
Louisiana LOU
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Mississippi MSI
New Mexico NWM
North Carolina NCA
Oklahoma OKL
South Carolina SCA
Texas TEX
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil South BZS
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Peru PER
Uruguay URU

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 99 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 0.8 °C 6.7 °C 9.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.3 °C 31.3 °C 34.9 °C
Annual rainfall 280 mm 459 mm 1,236 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 4 mm 19 mm 250 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 99 research-grade observations of Eleocharis montevidensis 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 10 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.

  • Eleocharis arenicola Torr. ex Engelm. & A.Gray
  • Eleocharis montana subsp. montevidensis (Kunth) Osten
  • Eleocharis montevidensis f. angustior S.González & McVaugh
  • Eleocharis montevidensis var. montevidensis
  • Eleocharis palmeri Svenson
  • Limnochloa montevidensis (Kunth) Nees
  • Scirpus arenicola (Torr. ex Engelm. & A.Gray) Kuntze
  • Scirpus arenicolus (Torr. ex Engelm. & A.Gray) Kuntze
  • Scirpus montevidensis (Kunth) Kuntze
  • Trichophyllum arenicola (Torr. ex Engelm. & A.Gray) House

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.