Fimbristylis aestivalis(Retz.) Vahl

summer fimbry

WFO wfo-0000418588 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 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.

Fimbristylis aestivalis, photographed by Meng-Ying Tsai
fig. a Meng-Ying Tsai, CC0 1.0 / 2021-01-17 / obs. 110348786

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
636927
Filed as
Fimbristylis aestivalis (Retz.) Vahl
Det. by
H. H. Pfeiffer 1923-01-01
Collected
P. von Luetzelburg 1913
Origin
BR
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 34 botanical countries

Regions where Fimbristylis aestivalis is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Manchuria, Primorye, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, New Caledonia China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanKhabarovskManchuriaPrimoryeTaiwanAssamBangladeshCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamNew South WalesNorthern TerritoryQueenslandSouth AustraliaVictoriaNew Caledonia KoreaAndaman Is.Nicobar Is.
Native distribution of Fimbristylis aestivalis, 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
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Manchuria CHM
Primorye PRM
Taiwan TAI
New South Wales NSW AUSTRALASIA
Northern Territory NTA
Queensland QLD
South Australia SOA
Victoria VIC
New Caledonia NWC PACIFIC

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 96 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 10.4 °C 13.0 °C 16.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.8 °C 30.0 °C 30.9 °C
Annual rainfall 1,876 mm 2,890 mm 4,555 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 71 mm 370 mm 862 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 96 research-grade observations of Fimbristylis aestivalis 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 12 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.

  • Cyperus amane Siebold
  • Fimbristylis aestivalis f. latifolia T.Koyama
  • Fimbristylis aestivalis subsp. major (Trimen) T.Koyama
  • Fimbristylis aestivalis var. major Trimen
  • Fimbristylis leiocarpa Maxim.
  • Fimbristylis tokyoensis Makino
  • Fimbristylis tricholepis Miq.
  • Fimbristylis trimenii Hook.f.
  • Iria aestivalis (Retz.) Kuntze
  • Isolepis schomburghii Steud.
  • Scirpus aestivalis Retz.
  • Scirpus leiocarpus (Maxim.) Meinsh.

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.