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Cenchrus alopecuroides; photograph Val, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYVal, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Cenchrus alopecuroides (L.) Thunb.

Black Fountaingrass

Poaceae · China South-Central, Hainan +21

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Cenchrus alopecuroides, photograph Val, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus alopecuroides, photograph Val, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus alopecuroides, photograph Val, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus alopecuroides, photograph Val, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus alopecuroides, photograph Val, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCenchrus alopecuroides, photograph Val, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-10.7°C
Record low -16.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,439mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–37DLI
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
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cenchrus alopecuroides, previously Pennisetum alopecuroides (Pen-ih-SEE-tum al-oh-pek-yur-OY-deez), commonly known as the Chinese pennisetum, Chinese fountaingrass, dwarf fountain grass, foxtail fountain grass, or swamp foxtail grass, is a species of perennial grass native to Asia and Australia. The culms are erect, and 60–100 cm long. The leaf-blades are erect or drooping; flat, or conduplicate (folded lengthwise) or involute (spiral); and from 10 to 45 cm long by 3–6 mm wide.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cenchrus alopecuroides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,043 mm of 1,415 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.7 °C against a yearly mean of 12.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,415 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,043 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 298 mm, driest month December at 29 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,177 mm to 1,985 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,439 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,415 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 37 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 38).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -10.7 °C, the absolute minimum -16.3 °C, 4,827 frost nights in 44 years, 109.7 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -5.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -9.5 °C to 3.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.7 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -10.7 °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: 56 to 67% 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 +2 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cenchrus alopecuroides through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -5.2 °C; 1,415 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, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost31.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-16.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 15–37RH 56–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 348 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 °C3 / 0–85 / 3–810 / 7–1216 / 12–1821 / 17–2324 / 21–2727 / 24–2928 / 26–2924 / 22–2619 / 17–2012 / 9–156 / 3–11
Night °C-5 / -10–3-4 / -8–31 / -2–67 / 4–1112 / 10–1517 / 15–1921 / 19–2322 / 19–2417 / 14–2110 / 7–163 / 0–11-3 / -6–6
Rain mm34 / 21–7946 / 24–8966 / 45–13888 / 65–152112 / 86–185169 / 129–255298 / 179–386283 / 149–354181 / 144–25756 / 43–17653 / 37–10529 / 19–66
DLI17 / 15–1923 / 21–2429 / 26–3035 / 32–3637 / 33–3835 / 31–3630 / 28–3330 / 28–3326 / 25–2824 / 21–2517 / 16–1915 / 14–17
RH %56 / 53–6056 / 53–5956 / 54–6057 / 53–6159 / 56–6463 / 59–6967 / 64–7266 / 63–6962 / 60–6558 / 57–6257 / 55–6056 / 53–60

Records on both sides of the equator: the 209 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 348 cells that remain: the 347 at least 10° north 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 348 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (403 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 1099:6144 (35.025, 127.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.9 °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 348 distinct grid cells holding 403 of the 658 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (347 cells poleward of 10° north, 209 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 1099:6144 (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 35.00_127.500, lapse-corrected +2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 220 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Vietnam, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia · introduced: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Transcaucasus, India, West Himalaya, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Delaware, Maryland · 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 marker35.616, 139.203 · in the densest population, 427 records (40% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1065 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 403 of them in the land cells it reads, of 658 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 719 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 265 km away. 602 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 407 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 4° block of the 1065 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cenchrus alopecuroides, photograph 1did not loadCenchrus alopecuroides, photograph 2did not loadCenchrus alopecuroides, photograph 3did not loadCenchrus alopecuroides, photograph 4did not loadCenchrus alopecuroides, photograph 5did not loadCenchrus alopecuroides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Val, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (6).

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

Akebia quinata Akebia quinata Chocolate vine Photo: CC BY, Stephen ThorpeAster yomena Aster yomena Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Ashwin SrinivasanKummerowia striata Kummerowia striata Japanese clover Photo: CC0, author not statedDryopteris lacera Dryopteris lacera Leathery wood fern Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Parthenocissus tricuspidata Parthenocissus tricuspidata Boston ivy Photo: CC BY, Sandy WolkenbergPersicaria senticosa Persicaria senticosa Prickled-vine smartweed Photo: CC BY, mami_t_t

Other Cenchrus 18 in the reference

Cenchrus americanus Cenchrus americanus Pearl millet Photo: CC BY, Fabrício Mil Homens RiellaCenchrus caudatus Cenchrus caudatus African Fountain Grass Photo: CC BY, Leon PerrieCenchrus ciliaris Cenchrus ciliaris Buffel-grass Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerCenchrus clandestinus Cenchrus clandestinus Kikuyu grass Photo: CC0, author not statedCenchrus × cupreus Cenchrus × cupreus Poaceae Photo: CC BY, Татьяна МаксимоваCenchrus echinatus Cenchrus echinatus Southern sandbur Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaCenchrus flaccidus Cenchrus flaccidus Flaccid grass Photo: CC BY-SA, Josep Gesti Cenchrus geniculatus Napier Millet Cenchrus latifolius Cenchrus latifolius Uruguay fountain grass Photo: CC BY, jodepagecorneyCenchrus longisetus Cenchrus longisetus Feathertop Photo: CC BY, PierreCenchrus longispinus Cenchrus longispinus Field sandbur Photo: CC0, author not statedCenchrus orientalis Cenchrus orientalis Oriental fountain grass Photo: CC BY, Astra all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Alopecurus hordeiformis; Alopecurus indicus; Catatherophora hordeiformis; Cenchrus asperifolius; Cenchrus compressus and 60 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
(L.) Thunb.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, Manchuria +20
Wild records
1065 in range · 719 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; 119 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (96 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 5 at a herbarium, 18 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 35.00_127.500, lapse-corrected +2 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21found by the GBIF record of Pennisetum alopecuroides, an older name with the same type; IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Cenchrus alopecuroides (L.) Thunb. (the item's: IPNI 414920-1, POWO 414920-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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 124 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…