Hyparrhenia hirta(L.) Stapf

thatching grass

WFO wfo-0000875263 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Hyparrhenia hirta, photographed by Marc Riera
fig. a Marc Riera, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-20 / obs. 199169458

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
641109
Filed as
Hyparrhenia hirta (L.) Stapf
Det. by
F. W. Gould 1977-01-01
Collected
D. E. Breedlove 1974-08-27
Origin
MX
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 65 botanical countries

Regions where Hyparrhenia hirta is native: Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Madeira, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Northern Provinces, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Western Sahara, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Türkiye, Yemen, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Albania, Baleares, Corse, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain AlgeriaAngolaBotswanaCameroonCape ProvincesCentral African RepublicChadCongoDjiboutiDR CongoEgyptEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGabonGuineaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoLibyaMadagascarMauritaniaMoroccoNamibiaNigerNorthern ProvincesSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTunisiaUgandaWestern SaharaZambiaZimbabweAfghanistanCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesIranIraqLebanon-SyriaOmanPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiTürkiyeYemenPakistanWest HimalayaAlbaniaCorseFranceGreeceItalyKritiNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalSiciliaSpain Canary Is.MadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Hyparrhenia hirta, 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
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Angola ANG
Botswana BOT
Cameroon CMN
Canary Is. CNY
Cape Provinces CPP
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
Djibouti DJI
DR Congo ZAI
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gabon GAB
Guinea GUI
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Libya LBY
Madagascar MDG
Madeira MDR
Mauritania MTN
Morocco MOR
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Northern Provinces TVL
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Tunisia TUN
Uganda UGA
Western Sahara WSA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Cyprus CYP
East Aegean Is. EAI
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Oman OMA
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Türkiye TUR
Yemen YEM
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL
West Himalaya WHM

Not drawn on the map: Socotra. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Flowering 133 in flower of 160 examined

Proportion of examined Hyparrhenia hirta in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 9 13 69% 42% to 87%
Feb 14 18 78% 55% to 91%
Mar 14 19 74% 51% to 88%
Apr 24 27 89% 72% to 96%
May 27 29 93% 78% to 98%
Jun 14 18 78% 55% to 91%
Jul 5 8 63% 31% to 86%
Aug 4 4 too few examined
Sep 5 5 100% 57% to 100%
Oct 5 5 100% 57% to 100%
Nov 8 9 89% 56% to 98%
Dec 4 5 80% 38% to 96%

Peak flowering in Sep. Each bar is the share of Hyparrhenia hirta observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 133 of 160 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,457 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 1.3 °C 7.0 °C 12.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.9 °C 26.7 °C 31.7 °C
Annual rainfall 305 mm 698 mm 1,314 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 5 mm 70 mm 196 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 1,457 research-grade observations of Hyparrhenia hirta 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 51 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.

  • Andropogon ambiguus Gennari ex Barbey
  • Andropogon ambiguus Gennari
  • Andropogon collinus Lojac.
  • Andropogon dalmaticus Gand.
  • Andropogon giganteus Ten.
  • Andropogon giganteus (Chiov.) Eyles
  • Andropogon hirsutus var. pubescens Husn.
  • Andropogon hirtus L.
  • Andropogon hirtus subsp. pubescens (Vis.) K.Richt.
  • Andropogon hirtus var. angustissimus Mutel
  • Andropogon hirtus var. glabriglumis Oppenh.
  • Andropogon hirtus var. glaucus Schrad.
  • Andropogon hirtus var. glaucus Nábelek
  • Andropogon hirtus var. longiaristatus Willk. & Lange
  • Andropogon hirtus var. podotrichus (Hochst. ex Steud.) Hack.
  • Andropogon hirtus var. pubescens (Andersson) Vis.
  • Andropogon hirtus var. velutinus Goiran
  • Andropogon modicus De Wild.
  • Andropogon pichleri Gand.
  • Andropogon pilosus Dufour ex Roem. & Schult.
  • Andropogon podotrichus Hochst. ex Steud.
  • Andropogon podotrichus Hochst.
  • Andropogon pubescens Vis.
  • Andropogon pubescens var. breviaristata Sennen

and 27 more.

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.