Panicum philadelphicumBernh. ex Nees

Philadelphia panicgrass

WFO wfo-1200034726 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, 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.

Panicum philadelphicum, photographed by Henry "Nick" Robertson
fig. a Henry "Nick" Robertson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-08-17 / obs. 151483559
Panicum philadelphicum, photographed by Henry "Nick" Robertson
fig. b Henry "Nick" Robertson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 151483586
Panicum philadelphicum, photographed by Henry "Nick" Robertson
fig. c Henry "Nick" Robertson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 151483625
Panicum philadelphicum, photographed by Henry "Nick" Robertson
fig. d Henry "Nick" Robertson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 151483518
Panicum philadelphicum, photographed by Henry "Nick" Robertson
fig. e Henry "Nick" Robertson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 151483463

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 36 botanical countries

Regions where Panicum philadelphicum is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Rhode I., South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaArkansasConnecticutGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMissouriNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNova ScotiaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Panicum philadelphicum, 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
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

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 113 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -15.6 °C -11.0 °C -2.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.2 °C 25.6 °C 30.5 °C
Annual rainfall 832 mm 1,010 mm 1,415 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 141 mm 200 mm 292 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 113 research-grade observations of Panicum philadelphicum 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 13 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.

  • Panicum capillare var. geniculatum Scribn.
  • Panicum capillare var. minus Nash
  • Panicum capillare var. philadelphicum (Bernh. ex Nees) Steud.
  • Panicum capillare var. sylvaticum Torr.
  • Panicum lithophilum Swallen
  • Panicum minimum (Gatt.) Scribn. & Merr.
  • Panicum minus Nash
  • Panicum philadelphicum subsp. lithophilum (Swallen) Freckmann & Lelong
  • Panicum philadelphicum var. tuckermanii (Fernald) Steyerm. & Schmoll
  • Panicum porphyrium Trin. ex Nees
  • Panicum soboliferum Scribn. & Merr.
  • Panicum torreyi E.Fourn.
  • Panicum tuckermanii Fernald

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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol PAPH. public domain. 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.