Melica nutansL.

WFO wfo-0000879316 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Melica nutans, photographed by Ljaž
fig. a Ljaž, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-13 / obs. 205764522
Melica nutans, photographed by Анна Рыбакова
fig. b Анна Рыбакова, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205960783
Melica nutans, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. c Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205241712
Melica nutans, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. d Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205238592
Melica nutans, photographed by Игорь Васильев
fig. e Игорь Васильев, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204672019
Melica nutans, photographed by Aurelijus Narbutas
fig. f Aurelijus Narbutas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204370469
Melica nutans, photographed by snaily_naily
fig. g snaily_naily, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203255268
Melica nutans, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. h Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203324927

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 55 botanical countries

Regions where Melica nutans is native: Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China Southeast, Irkutsk, Japan, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Kuril Is., Manchuria, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Primorye, Sakhalin, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, West Himalaya, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina SoutheastIrkutskJapanKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskManchuriaMongoliaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeSakhalinTadzhikistanTranscaucasusUzbekistanWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaWest HimalayaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine Korea
Native distribution of Melica nutans, 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
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China Southeast CHS
Irkutsk IRK
Japan JAP
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Kirgizstan KGZ
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Kuril Is. KUR
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Sakhalin SAK
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
West Himalaya WHM ASIA-TROPICAL

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is., Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are 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 156 in flower of 248 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Melica nutans 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. 156 of 248 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. 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 1,959 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -19.4 °C -9.5 °C -3.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 18.8 °C 22.9 °C 25.1 °C
Annual rainfall 499 mm 687 mm 1,438 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 62 mm 109 mm 256 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,959 research-grade observations of Melica nutans 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 19 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.

  • Aira nutans (L.) Weber
  • Dalucum nutans (L.) Bubani
  • Melica amurensis (Prob.) Tzvelev
  • Melica grandiflora Koidz.
  • Melica komarovii Luchnik
  • Melica montana Huds.
  • Melica montana Lam.
  • Melica nutans f. fissurae (Nyár.) Papp & Beldie
  • Melica nutans f. pallescens Lagerb.
  • Melica nutans f. paniculata (Borbás) Holmb.
  • Melica nutans subsp. amurensis Prob.
  • Melica nutans subsp. grandiflora (Koidz.) T.Koyama
  • Melica nutans var. argyrolepis Kom.
  • Melica nutans var. caespitosa Podp.
  • Melica nutans var. composita Murr
  • Melica nutans var. multiflora Blytt
  • Melica nutans var. viridiflora Opiz
  • Melica picta f. fissurae Nyár.
  • Poa nutans (L.) Clairv.

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. 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.