Schizachyrium scoparium(Michx.) Nash

little bluestem

WFO wfo-0000898183 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Schizachyrium scoparium, photographed by John Gaskin
fig. a John Gaskin, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-24 / obs. 200382134
Schizachyrium scoparium, photographed by Reid Hardin
fig. b Reid Hardin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 172107770
Schizachyrium scoparium, photographed by Violet T.
fig. c Violet T., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 185439942
Schizachyrium scoparium, photographed by Cliff Tyllick
fig. d Cliff Tyllick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169740957
Schizachyrium scoparium, photographed by CK2AZ
fig. e CK2AZ, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181915038
Schizachyrium scoparium, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. f Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174461334
Schizachyrium scoparium, photographed by John Kees
fig. g John Kees, CC0 1.0 / obs. 172503040
Schizachyrium scoparium, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. h Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194939166

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.

Flowering n = 125 observations

Peak flowering in Aug, from 125 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 51 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.

  • Andropogon divergens (Hack.) Andersson ex Hitchc.
  • Andropogon flexilis Poir.
  • Andropogon halei Alph.Wood
  • Andropogon mederensis Swallen
  • Andropogon neomexicanus Nash
  • Andropogon praematurus Fernald
  • Andropogon praematurus f. hirtivaginatus Fernald
  • Andropogon praematurus f. praematurus
  • Andropogon preamaturus Fernald
  • Andropogon purpurascens Muhl. ex Willd.
  • Andropogon scoparius Michx.
  • Andropogon scoparius f. caesius Hack.
  • Andropogon scoparius f. calvescens Fernald
  • Andropogon scoparius f. scoparius
  • Andropogon scoparius f. serpentinus Hack.
  • Andropogon scoparius f. simplicior Hack.
  • Andropogon scoparius subsp. euscoparius Hack. ex Beal
  • Andropogon scoparius subsp. genuinus Hack.
  • Andropogon scoparius subvar. flexilis (Poir.) Hack.
  • Andropogon scoparius var. divergens Hack.
  • Andropogon scoparius var. flexilis (Bosc ex Poir.) Hack.
  • Andropogon scoparius var. frequens F.T.Hubb.
  • Andropogon scoparius var. genuinus Fernald & Griscom
  • Andropogon scoparius var. glaucescens House

and 27 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.

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.