Sesleria caerulea(L.) Ard.

blue moor grass

WFO wfo-0000898775 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Sesleria caerulea, photographed by Katrin Ellmaier
fig. a Katrin Ellmaier, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-26 / obs. 200750127
Sesleria caerulea, photographed by Wolfgang Jauch
fig. b Wolfgang Jauch, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200991756
Sesleria caerulea, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. c Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197078537
Sesleria caerulea, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. d Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 195732635
Sesleria caerulea, photographed by Jason Grant
fig. e Jason Grant, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194801316
Sesleria caerulea, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. f Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194285188
Sesleria caerulea, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. g Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 195026695
Sesleria caerulea, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. h Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 189088491

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 14 botanical countries

Regions where Sesleria caerulea is native: Austria, Baltic States, Bulgaria, Czechia-Slovakia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Northwest European Russia, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland AustriaBaltic StatesBulgariaCzechia-SlovakiaFinlandGermanyHungaryItalyNorthwest European RussiaNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSwedenSwitzerland
Native distribution of Sesleria caerulea, 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
Austria AUT EUROPE
Baltic States BLT
Bulgaria BUL
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Finland FIN
Germany GER
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Northwest European Russia RUW
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI

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 40 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.

  • Aira varia Jacq.
  • Alopecurus varius Steud.
  • Cynosurus caeruleus L.
  • Cynosurus rupestris Wulfen ex Steud.
  • Cynosurus sesleria Schrank
  • Diptychum coeruleum (L.) Dulac
  • Sesleria arduinoi Desf. ex Steud.
  • Sesleria barcensis Simonk.
  • Sesleria barcensis var. subscabrida Simonk.
  • Sesleria caerulea f. chlorantha Waisb.
  • Sesleria caerulea f. cylindrica Waisb.
  • Sesleria caerulea f. micrantha Waisb.
  • Sesleria caerulea f. remotiflora Waisb.
  • Sesleria caerulea subsp. elegantissima (Braun-Blanq.) Braun-Blanq.
  • Sesleria caerulea subsp. varia (Jacq.) Kneuck.
  • Sesleria caerulea var. alba Soy.-Will.
  • Sesleria caerulea var. albicans (Kit.) Asch. & Graebn.
  • Sesleria caerulea var. calcaria Čelak.
  • Sesleria caerulea var. flavescens G.Mey.
  • Sesleria caerulea var. mutica (Badaro) Parl.
  • Sesleria caerulea var. pallida Hartm.
  • Sesleria caerulea var. uliginosa (Opiz) Celak.
  • Sesleria calcaria Pers.
  • Sesleria calcaria var. caerulea Opiz

and 16 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. 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.