Vahlodea atropurpurea(Wahlenb.) Fr.

mountain hairgrass

WFO wfo-0000906928 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 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.

Vahlodea atropurpurea, photographed by Trevor Van Loon
fig. a Trevor Van Loon, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-21 / obs. 153420792
Vahlodea atropurpurea, photographed by Matt Lavin
fig. b Matt Lavin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156802343
Vahlodea atropurpurea, photographed by Trevor Van Loon
fig. c Trevor Van Loon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153420790
Vahlodea atropurpurea, photographed by Trevor Van Loon
fig. d Trevor Van Loon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148995321
Vahlodea atropurpurea, photographed by Jared Shorma
fig. e Jared Shorma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159309518
Vahlodea atropurpurea, photographed by Trevor Van Loon
fig. f Trevor Van Loon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148994933
Vahlodea atropurpurea, photographed by Matt Berger
fig. g Matt Berger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 49865799
Vahlodea atropurpurea, photographed by Jared Shorma
fig. h Jared Shorma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159309527

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 36 botanical countries

Regions where Vahlodea atropurpurea is native: Japan, Kamchatka, Kuril Is., Magadan, Taiwan, Finland, North European Russia, Norway, Sweden, Alaska, Alberta, Aleutian Is., British Columbia, California, Colorado, Greenland, Idaho, Labrador, Maine, Manitoba, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Oregon, Québec, Vermont, Washington, Wyoming, Yukon, Argentina South, Chile Central, Chile South JapanKamchatkaMagadanTaiwanFinlandNorth European RussiaNorwaySwedenAlaskaAlbertaBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoGreenlandIdahoLabradorMaineManitobaMontanaNew HampshireNew YorkNewfoundlandNorthwest TerritoriesNunavutOntarioOregonQuébecVermontWashingtonWyomingYukonArgentina SouthChile CentralChile South
Native distribution of Vahlodea atropurpurea, 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
Alaska ASK NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Aleutian Is. ALU
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Greenland GNL
Idaho IDA
Labrador LAB
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Montana MNT
New Hampshire NWH
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
Northwest Territories NWT
Nunavut NUN
Ontario ONT
Oregon ORE
Québec QUE
Vermont VER
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO
Yukon YUK
Japan JAP ASIA-TEMPERATE
Kamchatka KAM
Kuril Is. KUR
Magadan MAG
Taiwan TAI
Finland FIN EUROPE
North European Russia RUN
Norway NOR
Sweden SWE
Argentina South AGS SOUTHERN AMERICA
Chile Central CLC
Chile South CLS

Not drawn on the map: Kuril Is., Aleutian Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are listed rather than guessed at.

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 162 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -19.0 °C -12.0 °C -4.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 12.2 °C 16.7 °C 20.3 °C
Annual rainfall 876 mm 1,791 mm 4,033 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 122 mm 258 mm 499 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 162 research-grade observations of Vahlodea atropurpurea 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 29 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 alpina Vahl
  • Aira atropurpurea Wahlenb.
  • Aira atropurpurea var. magellanica (Hook.f.) Skottsb.
  • Aira latifolia Hook.
  • Aira magellanica Hook.f.
  • Aira pinkeneyi Fr.
  • Avena atropurpurea (Wahlenb.) Link
  • Deschampsia atropurpurea (Wahlenb.) Scheele
  • Deschampsia atropurpurea f. multiflora Holmb.
  • Deschampsia atropurpurea subsp. paramushirensis (Kudô) T.Koyama
  • Deschampsia atropurpurea var. latifolia (Hook.) Scribn. ex Macoun
  • Deschampsia atropurpurea var. minor Vasey
  • Deschampsia atropurpurea var. paramushirensis Kudô
  • Deschampsia atropurpurea var. patentissima (Hultén) G.P.Anderson
  • Deschampsia atropurpurea var. payettii Lepage
  • Deschampsia brachyphylla Phil.
  • Deschampsia hookeriana Scribn.
  • Deschampsia latifolia (Hook.) Vasey
  • Deschampsia pacifica Tatew. & Ohwi
  • Erioblastus paramushirensis (Kudô) Honda
  • Holcus atropurpureus (Wahlenb.) Wahlenb.
  • Vahlodea atropurpurea subsp. latifolia (Hook.) A.E.Porsild
  • Vahlodea atropurpurea subsp. magellanica (Hook.f.) Hyl.
  • Vahlodea atropurpurea subsp. patentissima Hultén

and 5 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.