Setaria sphacelata(Schumach.) Stapf & C.E.Hubb. ex Moss

African bristlegrass

WFO wfo-0000899566 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Setaria sphacelata, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. a Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-10 / obs. 196761672
Setaria sphacelata, photographed by Margaret Burger
fig. b Margaret Burger, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 195879182
Setaria sphacelata, photographed by Margaret Burger
fig. c Margaret Burger, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 194448705
Setaria sphacelata, photographed by Thomas Mesaglio
fig. d Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173252962
Setaria sphacelata, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. e Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154685701
Setaria sphacelata, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. f Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 151929193
Setaria sphacelata, photographed by Margaret Burger
fig. g Margaret Burger, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 153765655
Setaria sphacelata, photographed by grabbarg
fig. h grabbarg, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 127145449

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
01157290
Filed as
Setaria sphacelata var. sphacelata
Det. by
A. Venter 2004-01-01
Collected
H. J. T. Venter 2004-12-15
Origin
ZA
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 44 botanical countries

Regions where Setaria sphacelata is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesCaprivi StripCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGabonGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMadagascarMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSierra LeoneSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Setaria sphacelata, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Caprivi Strip CPV
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gabon GAB
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

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 721 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 3.3 °C 9.5 °C 14.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.9 °C 26.8 °C 29.6 °C
Annual rainfall 681 mm 1,091 mm 3,097 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 19 mm 127 mm 259 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 721 research-grade observations of Setaria sphacelata 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 59 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.

  • Chaetochloa aurea (Hochst. ex A.Braun) Hitchc.
  • Chaetochloa glauca var. aurea (Hochst. ex A.Braun) W.F.Wright
  • Panicum aureum (Hochst. ex A.Braun) Nees
  • Panicum chrysanthum Steud.
  • Panicum rudimentosum Steud.
  • Panicum sphacelatum Schumach.
  • Pennisetum aureum A.Rich.
  • Pennisetum rudimentosum Steud.
  • Setaria almaspicata de Wit
  • Setaria alpestris Peter
  • Setaria anceps Stapf ex Massey
  • Setaria anceps Stapf
  • Setaria anceps var. sericea Stapf
  • Setaria angustifolia Stapf
  • Setaria aurea A.Braun
  • Setaria aurea f. minor Pilg.
  • Setaria aurea subsp. kisunduensis Vanderyst
  • Setaria aurea var. breviseta Schweinf.
  • Setaria aurea var. fumigata Peter
  • Setaria aurea var. kinsundensis Vanderyst
  • Setaria aurea var. latifolia Peter
  • Setaria aurea var. longiseta Chiov.
  • Setaria aurea var. pallida Stapf
  • Setaria aurea var. palustris Vanderyst

and 35 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.