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Bothriochloa laguroides; photograph (c) pedrogarabaya, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) pedrogarabaya, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-01-04

Bothriochloa laguroides (DC.) Herter

Silver bluestem; Silver Beardgrass

Poaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +17

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Bothriochloa laguroides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBothriochloa laguroides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBothriochloa laguroides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBothriochloa laguroides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBothriochloa laguroides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBothriochloa laguroides, photograph (c) Patricio Cowper Coles, some rights reserved (CC BY) 62 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-0.5°C
Record low -3.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,228mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–46DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Bothriochloa laguroides, the silver beard grass, is a species of grass in the genus Bothriochloa of the family Poaceae. The species is native to Mexico and South America.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Bothriochloa laguroides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (910 mm of 1,233 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 13.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to November.

Rain

1,233 mm in the median year at the habitat, 910 mm of it October to May. Wettest month February at 125 mm, driest month August at 71 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,029 mm to 1,384 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,228 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,233 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -0.5 °C, the absolute minimum -3.9 °C, 244 frost nights in 44 years, 5.5 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 5.5 °C to 8.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.8 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -5 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Bothriochloa laguroides through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 7.0 °C; 1,233 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost39.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-3.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 14–46RH 57–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 385 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 27–3027 / 26–2926 / 24–2722 / 21–2318 / 17–1915 / 14–1715 / 13–1617 / 15–1918 / 17–2021 / 20–2324 / 22–2627 / 25–29
Night °C19 / 17–2018 / 17–2017 / 16–1914 / 12–1510 / 9–128 / 6–97 / 6–88 / 7–99 / 8–1112 / 11–1414 / 13–1617 / 16–19
Rain mm113 / 89–131125 / 106–141122 / 101–144112 / 90–152109 / 58–13590 / 32–11872 / 29–11471 / 34–10890 / 57–113113 / 95–128113 / 99–128103 / 82–130
DLI45 / 44–4739 / 37–4032 / 31–3323 / 23–2417 / 17–1914 / 14–1616 / 15–1821 / 20–2328 / 26–3036 / 34–3743 / 41–4446 / 45–47
RH %57 / 55–6059 / 57–6260 / 59–6261 / 60–6362 / 60–6463 / 61–6563 / 60–6461 / 57–6361 / 56–6360 / 56–6259 / 55–6157 / 55–60

Records on both sides of the equator: the 224 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 385 cells that remain: the 384 at least 10° south and the 1 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 385 grid cells holding the 606 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2460:2387 (-33.025, -60.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 385 distinct grid cells holding 606 of the 853 in-range records on the southern side of the equator (224 cells poleward of 10° north, 384 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2460:2387 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -33.00_-60.625, lapse-corrected -5 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 25 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Paraguay, Uruguay · introduced: Italy, Hawaii, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-34.561, -55.138 · in the densest population, 499 records (42% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1192 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 606 of them in the land cells it reads, of 853 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 579 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7494 km away. 265 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 339 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1192 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Bothriochloa laguroides, photograph 1did not loadBothriochloa laguroides, photograph 2did not loadBothriochloa laguroides, photograph 3did not loadBothriochloa laguroides, photograph 4did not loadBothriochloa laguroides, photograph 5did not loadBothriochloa laguroides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (5); (c) Patricio Cowper Coles, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Verbena montevidensis Verbena montevidensis Uruguayan vervain Photo: CC BY, Rocío Esmeralda PoseEryngium horridum Eryngium horridum Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, Gastón RepettoNassella neesiana Nassella neesiana American Needle-grass Photo: CC BY, Dave RichardsonCuphea glutinosa Cuphea glutinosa Sticky waxweed Photo: CC BY, Chet BurrierChascolytrum subaristatum Chascolytrum subaristatum Poaceae Photo: CC BY, Kym NicolsonSoliva sessilis Soliva sessilis Onehunga-weed Photo: CC BY, Pluto Hooper

Other Bothriochloa 6 in the reference

Bothriochloa barbinodis Bothriochloa barbinodis Cane bluestem Photo: CC BY, mel lettermanBothriochloa bladhii Bothriochloa bladhii Caucasian bluestem Photo: CC0, author not statedBothriochloa ischaemum Bothriochloa ischaemum Yellow bluestem Photo: CC0, author not statedBothriochloa longipaniculata Bothriochloa longipaniculata Longspike silver bluestem Photo: CC BY, JulienBothriochloa macra Bothriochloa macra Red-leg grass Photo: CC0, author not statedBothriochloa torreyana Bothriochloa torreyana Silver bluestem Photo: CC BY, Rich Sommer

Names & registers

Also known as Andropogon laguriformis; Andropogon laguroides; Andropogon laguroides subsp. havelii; Andropogon saccharoides subsp. laguroides; Andropogon saccharoides var. laguroides and 9 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
(DC.) Herter
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +16
Wild records
1192 in range · 579 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 24 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 8 at a herbarium, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -33.00_-60.625, lapse-corrected -5 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 111 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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