Panicum virgatumL.

switchgrass

WFO wfo-0000886863 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Panicum virgatum, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. a Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-03 / obs. 204527512
Panicum virgatum, photographed by saltyhiker
fig. b saltyhiker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 185437916
Panicum virgatum, photographed by jim isleib
fig. c jim isleib, CC0 1.0 / obs. 199976338
Panicum virgatum, photographed by saltyhiker
fig. d saltyhiker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189935036
Panicum virgatum, photographed by Clifton Ladd, C.W.B.
fig. e Clifton Ladd, C.W.B., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187156407
Panicum virgatum, photographed by Yann Kemper
fig. f Yann Kemper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 180879831
Panicum virgatum, photographed by Marilynn Miller
fig. g Marilynn Miller, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 180127405
Panicum virgatum, photographed by Eric Watts
fig. h Eric Watts, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179033735

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.

Confused withby our own model

These are not lookalikes we guessed at. Each one is a species our identification model genuinely mistook for this plant, and how many times. The error rate is published.

Flowering n = 181 observations

Peak flowering in Aug, from 181 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 24 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.

  • Chasea virgata (L.) Nieuwl.
  • Eatonia purpurascens Raf.
  • Ichnanthus glaber Link ex Steud.
  • Milium virgatum (L.) Lunell
  • Milium virgatum var. elongatum (Vasey) Lunell
  • Panicum buchingeri E.Fourn.
  • Panicum coloratum F.Muell.
  • Panicum giganteum Scheele
  • Panicum glaberrimum Steud.
  • Panicum ichnanthoides E.Fourn.
  • Panicum kunthii E.Fourn.
  • Panicum pruinosum Bernh. ex Trin.
  • Panicum virgatum subsp. cubense (Griseb.) Borhidi
  • Panicum virgatum var. breviramosum Nash
  • Panicum virgatum var. confertum Vasey
  • Panicum virgatum var. cubense Griseb.
  • Panicum virgatum var. diffusum Vasey
  • Panicum virgatum var. elongatum Vasey
  • Panicum virgatum var. glauciphyllum Cassidy
  • Panicum virgatum var. obtusum Alph.Wood
  • Panicum virgatum var. scorteum H.P.Linder
  • Panicum virgatum var. spissum H.P.Linder
  • Panicum virgatum var. thyrsiforme H.P.Linder
  • Panicum virgatum var. virgatum

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.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.