Pentameris pallida(Thunb.) Galley & H.P.Linder

Cape ricegrass

WFO wfo-0000920990 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Pentameris pallida, photographed by Kym Nicolson
fig. a Kym Nicolson, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-29 / obs. 192063005
Pentameris pallida, photographed by Kym Nicolson
fig. b Kym Nicolson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174286012
Pentameris pallida, photographed by Kym Nicolson
fig. c Kym Nicolson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168895836
Pentameris pallida, photographed by Kym Nicolson
fig. d Kym Nicolson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168895759
Pentameris pallida, photographed by Kym Nicolson
fig. e Kym Nicolson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168193473
Pentameris pallida, photographed by Kym Nicolson
fig. f Kym Nicolson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168327325
Pentameris pallida, photographed by Kym Nicolson
fig. g Kym Nicolson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 127870907
Pentameris pallida, photographed by Justin Ponder
fig. h Justin Ponder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 126457675

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 1 botanical country

Regions where Pentameris pallida is native: Cape Provinces Cape Provinces
Native distribution of Pentameris pallida, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Cape Provinces CPP AFRICA

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.

Also published as 34 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.

  • Achnatherum capense (L.) P.Beauv.
  • Agrostis capensis (L.) Lam.
  • Avena pallida Thunb.
  • Danthonia angustifolia Nees
  • Danthonia buekeana Lehm. ex Nees
  • Danthonia buekeana var. minor Nees
  • Danthonia capensis (L.) Druce
  • Danthonia filiformis Nees
  • Danthonia micrantha Trin.
  • Danthonia micrantha Nees
  • Danthonia pallida (Thunb.) Roem. & Schult.
  • Danthonia papillosa Schrad.
  • Danthonia procumbens Nees ex Drège
  • Danthonia villosa var. glabra Nees
  • Danthonia villosa var. glomerata Nees
  • Milium capense L.
  • Pappophorum glandulosum P.J.Bergius ex Nees
  • Pentameris angustifolia (Nees) Steud.
  • Pentameris buekeana (Lehm. ex Nees) Steud.
  • Pentameris filiformis (Nees) Steud.
  • Pentameris micrantha (Trin.) Steud.
  • Pentameris procumbens Steud.
  • Pentaschistis angustifolia (Nees) Stapf
  • Pentaschistis angustifolia var. albescens Stapf

and 10 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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol ACCA34. 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.