Fimbristylis schoenoides(Retz.) Vahl

Ditch Fimbryditch fimbry

WFO wfo-0000423224 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.

Fimbristylis schoenoides, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. a Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-02-28 / obs. 182532739

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
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 3725147
Filed as
Fimbristylis schoenoides (Retz.) Vahl
Det. by
Strong, M. T., (US), Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History (UNITED STATES)
Collected
F. R. Fosberg 1980-09-08
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

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 35 botanical countries

Regions where Fimbristylis schoenoides is native: Gabon, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Korea, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, Northern Territory, Queensland GabonGhanaGuinea-BissauMaliNigeriaSenegalSierra LeoneTanzaniaZambiaChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanTaiwanAssamBangladeshBorneoCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMyanmarNepalPakistanPhilippinesSri LankaSumateraThailandVietnamNorthern TerritoryQueensland KoreaAndaman Is.
Native distribution of Fimbristylis schoenoides, 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
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Pakistan PAK
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Gabon GAB AFRICA
Ghana GHA
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Mali MLI
Nigeria NGA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Tanzania TAN
Zambia ZAM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Korea KOR
Taiwan TAI
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD

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 118 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 8.3 °C 15.7 °C 18.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.1 °C 30.3 °C 32.0 °C
Annual rainfall 1,296 mm 1,582 mm 3,941 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 64 mm 192 mm 794 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 118 research-grade observations of Fimbristylis schoenoides 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 18 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.

  • Abildgaardia nervosa J.Presl & C.Presl
  • Eleogiton monostachya (J.Koenig ex Roxb.) A.Dietr.
  • Fimbristylis bispicata Nees & Meyen
  • Fimbristylis bispicata (J.Koenig ex Roxb.) Nees & Meyen
  • Fimbristylis inconstans Steud.
  • Fimbristylis kagiensis Hayata
  • Fimbristylis kunthiana Ridl.
  • Fimbristylis longifolia S.T.Blake
  • Fimbristylis schoenoides var. ciliata Ridl.
  • Iria bispicata (J.Koenig ex Roxb.) Kuntze
  • Iria schoenodes (Retz.) Kuntze
  • Iriha schoenoides (Retz.) Kuntze
  • Isolepis bispicata (J.Koenig ex Roxb.) Schult.
  • Isolepis monostachya (J.Koenig ex Roxb.) Spreng.
  • Isolepis rariflora Schrad.
  • Scirpus bispicatus J.Koenig ex Roxb.
  • Scirpus monostachyos J.Koenig ex Roxb.
  • Scirpus schoenoides Retz.

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.