Steinchisma laxum(Sw.) Zuloaga

lax panicgrass

WFO wfo-0000901597 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 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.

Steinchisma laxum, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. a Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / 2017-10-21 / obs. 12009972
Steinchisma laxum, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. b Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 12009974
Steinchisma laxum, photographed by Elix Hernandez
fig. c Elix Hernandez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99484130
Steinchisma laxum, photographed by Elix Hernandez
fig. d Elix Hernandez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 99484163

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 33 botanical countries

Regions where Steinchisma laxum is native: Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Galápagos, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, Windward Is. Mexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoUruguayVenezuela BahamasGalápagosLeeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Steinchisma laxum, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Southeast MXT NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southwest MXS

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 128 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 10.2 °C 16.6 °C 24.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.5 °C 30.3 °C 32.7 °C
Annual rainfall 1,075 mm 1,826 mm 3,381 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 61 mm 186 mm 495 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 128 research-grade observations of Steinchisma laxum 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 21 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.

  • Agrostis nigrescens Salzm. ex Steud.
  • Cliffordiochloa parvispicula B.K.Simon
  • Panicum agrostidiforme Lam.
  • Panicum agrostis Nees ex Döll
  • Panicum agrostoides Spreng.
  • Panicum anceps var. minus Rchb. ex Döll
  • Panicum caroniense Luces
  • Panicum diandrum Kunth
  • Panicum hondurense Swallen
  • Panicum laxum Sw.
  • Panicum laxum f. minus Hack.
  • Panicum laxum var. laxum
  • Panicum laxum var. pubescens Döll
  • Panicum laxum var. vestitum L.B.Sm. & Wassh.
  • Panicum leptomerum J.Presl
  • Panicum luticola Hitchc.
  • Panicum pilosum var. epilosum E.Fourn.
  • Panicum psilanthum Steud.
  • Panicum ramuliflorum Hochst. ex Steud.
  • Panicum tenuiculmum G.Mey.
  • Vilfa gavana Steud.

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 PALA8. 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.