Stipagrostis obtusa(Delile) Nees

WFO wfo-0000903098 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Stipagrostis obtusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2019-09-07 / obs. 52255447
Stipagrostis obtusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. b Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19427148
Stipagrostis obtusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. c Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19044678
Stipagrostis obtusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15940558
Stipagrostis obtusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. e Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 16172947
Stipagrostis obtusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. f Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15149175
Stipagrostis obtusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. g Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 19061098
Stipagrostis obtusa, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 15953311

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 22 botanical countries

Regions where Stipagrostis obtusa is native: Algeria, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Free State, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Gulf States, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Yemen, Pakistan AlgeriaBotswanaCape ProvincesChadEgyptEthiopiaFree StateLibyaMauritaniaMoroccoNamibiaTunisiaWestern SaharaGulf StatesIraqKuwaitLebanon-SyriaPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiYemenPakistan
Native distribution of Stipagrostis obtusa, 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
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Cape Provinces CPP
Chad CHA
Egypt EGY
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Libya LBY
Mauritania MTN
Morocco MOR
Namibia NAM
Tunisia TUN
Western Sahara WSA
Gulf States GST ASIA-TEMPERATE
Iraq IRQ
Kuwait KUW
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Yemen YEM
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL

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 48 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 2.4 °C 5.4 °C 9.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 29.6 °C 31.6 °C 35.7 °C
Annual rainfall 58 mm 166 mm 296 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 2 mm 10 mm 52 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 48 research-grade observations of Stipagrostis obtusa 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 10 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.

  • Aristida bifida Karl
  • Aristida capensis Thunb.
  • Aristida obtusa Delile
  • Arthratherum capense (Thunb.) Nees
  • Arthratherum obtusum (Delile) Nees
  • Avena capensis (Thunb.) L.f.
  • Chaetaria capensis (Thunb.) P.Beauv.
  • Stipa plumosa Sieber ex Nees
  • Stipagrostis capensis Nees
  • Trisetum muricatum Spreng.

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.