Eriochloa acuminata(J.Presl) Kunth

tapertip cupgrass

WFO wfo-0000869056 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 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.

Eriochloa acuminata, photographed by Oscar C. González Martínez
fig. a Oscar C. González Martínez, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2019-09-26 / obs. 52568961

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
1689731
Filed as
Eriochloa acuminata (J.Presl) Kunth
Det. by
A. Tiehm 2022-01-01
Collected
W. E. Niles 1991-10-19
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Eriochloa acuminata is native: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest ArizonaArkansasCaliforniaFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMexico CentralMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SouthwestMississippiMissouriNevadaNew MexicoNorth CarolinaOklahomaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasUtahVirginiaArgentina NortheastArgentina Northwest
Native distribution of Eriochloa acuminata, 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
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
California CAL
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southwest MXS
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
North Carolina NCA
Oklahoma OKL
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Virginia VRG
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW

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 54 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -1.8 °C 2.8 °C 13.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 29.7 °C 32.7 °C 36.9 °C
Annual rainfall 189 mm 477 mm 1,314 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 2 mm 35 mm 269 mm

It is found where winters bring light frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 54 research-grade observations of Eriochloa acuminata 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 11 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.

  • Eriochloa acuminata var. acuminata
  • Eriochloa acuminata var. minor (Vasey) R.B.Shaw
  • Eriochloa gracilis (E.Fourn.) Hitchc.
  • Eriochloa gracilis var. gracilis
  • Eriochloa gracilis var. minor (Vasey) Hitchc.
  • Eriochloa lemmonii var. gracilis (E.Fourn.) Gould
  • Eriochloa lemmonii var. minor (Vasey) Beetle
  • Eriochloa punctata var. minor Vasey
  • Helopus acuminatus (J.Presl) Steud.
  • Helopus gracilis E.Fourn.
  • Piptatherum acuminatum J.Presl

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.