Paspalum laeveMichx.

field paspalum

WFO wfo-0000887886 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Paspalum laeve, photographed by Dan Johnson
fig. a Dan Johnson, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-10-26 / obs. 102121566
Paspalum laeve, photographed by Healthy Yards
fig. b Healthy Yards, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 151510497
Paspalum laeve, photographed by Cleveland Powell
fig. c Cleveland Powell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 143221296
Paspalum laeve, photographed by Zihao Wang
fig. d Zihao Wang, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 23885910
Paspalum laeve, photographed by Daniel Atha
fig. e Daniel Atha, CC0 1.0 / obs. 23704153
Paspalum laeve, photographed by Zihao Wang
fig. f Zihao Wang, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 23266886
Paspalum laeve, photographed by Zihao Wang
fig. g Zihao Wang, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 22754134
Paspalum laeve, photographed by Daniel Atha
fig. h Daniel Atha, CC0 1.0 / obs. 9478672

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 28 botanical countries

Regions where Paspalum laeve is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia AlabamaArkansasConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMississippiMissouriNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioOklahomaPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVirginiaWest Virginia DelawareDistrict of Columbia
Native distribution of Paspalum laeve, 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
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA

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 142 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -5.3 °C -1.4 °C 14.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.0 °C 31.0 °C 33.8 °C
Annual rainfall 1,111 mm 1,240 mm 1,493 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 202 mm 257 mm 317 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 142 research-grade observations of Paspalum laeve 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 21 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.

  • Paspalum alternans Steud.
  • Paspalum angustifolium Leconte
  • Paspalum angustifolium var. tenue Alph.Wood
  • Paspalum australe Nash
  • Paspalum circulare Nash
  • Paspalum laeve subsp. circulare (Nash) W.Stone
  • Paspalum laeve var. angustifolium (Leconte) Vasey
  • Paspalum laeve var. australe (Nash) Nash
  • Paspalum laeve var. brevifolium Vasey
  • Paspalum laeve var. circulare (Nash) Fernald
  • Paspalum laeve var. laeve
  • Paspalum laeve var. pilosum Scribn.
  • Paspalum laeve var. radicans Vasey ex Gatt.
  • Paspalum laeve var. undulosum (Leconte) Alph.Wood
  • Paspalum leconteanum Schult.
  • Paspalum longipilum Nash
  • Paspalum plenipilum Nash
  • Paspalum praelongum Nash
  • Paspalum punctulatum Bertol.
  • Paspalum tenue Darby
  • Paspalum undulosum Leconte

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.