Sporobolus centrifugus(Trin.) Nees

WFO wfo-0000901032 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC0

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Sporobolus centrifugus, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. a Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / 2018-12-16 / obs. 39692364
Sporobolus centrifugus, photographed by bat (Maria Vorontsova)
fig. b bat (Maria Vorontsova), CC0 1.0 / obs. 103612240
Sporobolus centrifugus, photographed by Jimmy Whatmore
fig. c Jimmy Whatmore, CC0 1.0 / obs. 39692295

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 Sporobolus centrifugus is native: Cape Provinces, Congo, Eswatini, Free State, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Northern Provinces, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe Cape ProvincesCongoEswatiniFree StateKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMadagascarMalawiNorthern ProvincesSudan-South SudanTanzaniaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Sporobolus centrifugus, 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
Congo CON
Eswatini SWZ
Free State OFS
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Northern Provinces TVL
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
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.

Also published as 12 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.

  • Holcus laxus Bosc ex Trin.
  • Sporobolus centrifugus subsp. filifolius (Stent) Gooss.
  • Sporobolus centrifugus subsp. laxivaginatus (Stent) Gooss.
  • Sporobolus centrifugus var. filifolius (Stent) Gooss.
  • Sporobolus centrifugus var. laxivaginatus (Stent) Gooss.
  • Sporobolus filifolius Stent
  • Sporobolus hildebrandtii Mez
  • Sporobolus kaka Vanderyst
  • Sporobolus laxivaginatus Stent
  • Sporobolus schlechteri Schweick.
  • Sporobolus tysonii Stent
  • Vilfa centrifuga Trin.

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. 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.