Miscanthus floridulus(Labill.) Warb. ex K.Schum. & Lauterb.

Pacific Island silvergrass

WFO wfo-0000880245 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Miscanthus floridulus, photographed by 潘立傑 LICHIEH_PAN
fig. a 潘立傑 LICHIEH_PAN, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-08 / obs. 195802253
Miscanthus floridulus, photographed by Jon Sullivan
fig. b Jon Sullivan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191149053
Miscanthus floridulus, photographed by 葉子
fig. c 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 150916220
Miscanthus floridulus, photographed by 葉子
fig. d 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 150930728
Miscanthus floridulus, photographed by 葉子
fig. e 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 140392747
Miscanthus floridulus, photographed by 高山田鼠
fig. f 高山田鼠, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131671859
Miscanthus floridulus, photographed by portioid
fig. g portioid, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 102717007
Miscanthus floridulus, photographed by 葉子
fig. h 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 92416394

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 34 botanical countries

Regions where Miscanthus floridulus is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Bismarck Archipelago, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sulawesi, Sumatera, Vietnam, Caroline Is., Cook Is., Fiji, Gilbert Is., Marquesas, Marshall Is., New Caledonia, Niue, Samoa, Society Is., Tonga, Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is. China South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanTaiwanBismarck ArchipelagoJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.SulawesiSumateraVietnamFijiNew Caledonia Nansei-shotoCaroline Is.Cook Is.MarquesasMarshall Is.NiueSamoaSociety Is.TongaTuamotuTubuai Is.VanuatuWallis-Futuna Is.
Native distribution of Miscanthus floridulus, 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
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Cook Is. COO
Fiji FIJ
Gilbert Is. GIL
Marquesas MRQ
Marshall Is. MRS
New Caledonia NWC
Niue NUE
Samoa SAM
Society Is. SCI
Tonga TON
Tuamotu TUA
Tubuai Is. TUB
Vanuatu VAN
Wallis-Futuna Is. WAL
Bismarck Archipelago BIS ASIA-TROPICAL
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Vietnam VIE
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI

Not drawn on the map: Gilbert Is.. 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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 340 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.2 °C 11.8 °C 23.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.2 °C 28.7 °C 31.0 °C
Annual rainfall 1,524 mm 2,974 mm 4,387 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 89 mm 186 mm 709 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 340 research-grade observations of Miscanthus floridulus 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.

  • Erianthus floridulus (Labill.) Schult. & Schult.f.
  • Eulalia densa (Nees) Munro
  • Miscanthus formosanus A.Camus
  • Miscanthus japonicus Andersson
  • Miscanthus luzonensis Andersson
  • Miscanthus ryukyuensis Honda
  • Saccharum densum Nees
  • Saccharum distichophyllum Steud. ex Jard.
  • Saccharum floridulum Labill.
  • Saccharum japonicum Houtt.
  • Saccharum praegrande Steud.
  • Xiphagrostis floridula (Labill.) Coville

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.