Enneapogon cenchroides(Licht.) C.E.Hubb.

soft feather pappusgrass

WFO wfo-0000867128 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Enneapogon cenchroides, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-06-13 / obs. 140008283
Enneapogon cenchroides, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. b Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 126689168
Enneapogon cenchroides, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. c Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 80636847
Enneapogon cenchroides, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. d Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 138980237
Enneapogon cenchroides, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. e Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / obs. 12539304
Enneapogon cenchroides, photographed by Ricus Nel
fig. f Ricus Nel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194258316
Enneapogon cenchroides, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. g Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187459955
Enneapogon cenchroides, photographed by Craig Martin
fig. h Craig Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 180361585

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 26 botanical countries

Regions where Enneapogon cenchroides is native: Angola, Ascension, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Chad, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Northern Provinces, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, India, Pakistan AngolaBotswanaCape ProvincesChadEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNorthern ProvincesSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZimbabweOmanSaudi ArabiaYemenIndiaPakistan Ascension
Native distribution of Enneapogon cenchroides, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Ascension ASC
Botswana BOT
Cape Provinces CPP
Chad CHA
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Northern Provinces TVL
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zimbabwe ZIM
Oman OMA ASIA-TEMPERATE
Saudi Arabia SAU
Yemen YEM
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Pakistan PAK

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 613 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 1.1 °C 4.5 °C 15.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.9 °C 33.4 °C 37.3 °C
Annual rainfall 186 mm 392 mm 752 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 1 mm 24 mm 48 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 613 research-grade observations of Enneapogon cenchroides 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 8 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.

  • Enneapogon abyssinicus (Hochst.) Rendle
  • Enneapogon mollis Lehm.
  • Pappophorum abyssinicum Hochst.
  • Pappophorum cenchroides Licht.
  • Pappophorum cenchroides var. albescens Schweinf.
  • Pappophorum molle (Lehm.) Kunth
  • Pappophorum robustum Hook.f.
  • Pappophorum senegalense Steud.

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.