Molinia caerulea(L.) Moench

Purple Moor Grasspurple moor-grasspurple moorgrass

WFO wfo-0000880418 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Molinia caerulea, photographed by Gabriel Mayrhofer
fig. a Gabriel Mayrhofer, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-07 / obs. 200434738
Molinia caerulea, photographed by Силаева Татьяна Борисовна
fig. b Силаева Татьяна Борисовна, CC0 1.0 / obs. 160065150
Molinia caerulea, photographed by Yves Bas
fig. c Yves Bas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 158087388
Molinia caerulea, photographed by Thomas Gyselinck
fig. d Thomas Gyselinck, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154816205
Molinia caerulea, photographed by Tim Johnson
fig. e Tim Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175733792
Molinia caerulea, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. f Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152258959
Molinia caerulea, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. g Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 152248004
Molinia caerulea, photographed by Татьяна Горбушина
fig. h Татьяна Горбушина, CC0 1.0 / obs. 151353396

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 43 botanical countries

Regions where Molinia caerulea is native: Algeria, Ethiopia, Morocco, Tunisia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, Føroyar, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaEthiopiaMoroccoTunisiaKazakhstanLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine Føroyar
Native distribution of Molinia caerulea, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
Føroyar FOR
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Kazakhstan KAZ ASIA-TEMPERATE
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Ethiopia ETH
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. 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 39 in flower of 101 examined

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Molinia caerulea 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. 39 of 101 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.

Also published as 101 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 atrovirens Thuill.
  • Aira caerulea L.
  • Aira caerulea unranked variegata Abbey
  • Amblytes caerulea (L.) Dulac
  • Arundo agrostis Lapeyr. ex Willk. & Lange
  • Cynodon caeruleus (L.) Raspail
  • Enodium atrovirens Dumort.
  • Enodium caeruleum (L.) Gaudin
  • Enodium caeruleum subsp. atrovirens (Thuill.) Dumort.
  • Enodium caeruleum var. alpinum Gray
  • Enodium caeruleum var. angustifolium Tinant
  • Enodium caeruleum var. brevifolium Tinant
  • Enodium caeruleum var. congestum Pauquy
  • Enodium caeruleum var. contractum Tinant
  • Enodium caeruleum var. depauperatum Tinant
  • Enodium caeruleum var. divaricatum Dumort.
  • Enodium caeruleum var. interruptum Tinant
  • Enodium caeruleum var. latifolium Tinant
  • Enodium caeruleum var. laxum Tinant
  • Enodium caeruleum var. longifolium Tinant
  • Enodium caeruleum var. multiflorum Gray
  • Enodium caeruleum var. pallescens Lange
  • Enodium caeruleum var. parviflorum Tinant
  • Enodium caeruleum var. pauciflorum Tinant

and 77 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.