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Chrysopogon aciculatus; photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-23

Chrysopogon aciculatus (Retz.) Trin.

Golden false beardgrass; Mackie's pest; Lesser spear grass; Love grass

Poaceae · Mauritius, Madagascar +51

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Chrysopogon aciculatus, photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chrysopogon aciculatus, photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chrysopogon aciculatus, photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chrysopogon aciculatus, photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chrysopogon aciculatus, photograph (c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chrysopogon aciculatus, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 70 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
19.1°C
Record low 16.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,445mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–35DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, April to October (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Chrysopogon aciculatus (syn. Andropogon aciculatus) is a species of grass native to the tropics of Asia, Polynesia, and Australia at low elevations. Common names include amorseco (Spanish, "dry love"; not to be confused with the amor seco tree, Alchornea glandulosa), lesser spear grass, Mackie's pest, pilipiliʻula (or pilipiliula), and grama-amorosa (Brazilian Portuguese). It is native to Tahiti as accounted in James Cook's records of his first voyage; but may have been an accidental introduction to Samoan and Hawaiian islands by Polynesian settlers there.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Chrysopogon aciculatus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,601 mm of 2,275 mm) falls in April to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,275 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,601 mm of it April to October. Wettest month August at 258 mm, driest month February at 111 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,611 mm to 3,511 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,445 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,275 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: 28 to 35 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 19.1 °C, the absolute minimum 16.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 11.8 °C to 24.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.3 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.1 °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: 64 to 66% 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 -792 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 Chrysopogon aciculatus through the yearWarmest months April, May, June, July, August and September, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 20.4 °C; 2,275 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.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°35.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER16.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 28–35RH 64–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 235 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 °C27 / 18–3028 / 19–3028 / 21–3229 / 24–3229 / 27–3129 / 27–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 27–3028 / 26–3028 / 23–2927 / 19–29
Night °C20 / 12–2521 / 13–2522 / 16–2523 / 19–2624 / 21–2624 / 21–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 21–2523 / 20–2522 / 17–2521 / 13–25
Rain mm112 / 16–328111 / 26–309138 / 44–287177 / 77–300232 / 128–339233 / 118–460253 / 104–510258 / 96–506252 / 124–446196 / 52–352170 / 23–358143 / 12–331
DLI30 / 20–3432 / 21–3834 / 26–4035 / 29–4034 / 30–3633 / 27–3533 / 26–3833 / 26–3632 / 28–3631 / 27–3729 / 22–3528 / 20–33
RH %64 / 57–7064 / 56–6965 / 56–6966 / 60–7066 / 63–7066 / 63–7066 / 63–7066 / 63–7066 / 64–7065 / 62–6965 / 59–6965 / 57–70

Records on both sides of the equator: the 74 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 235 cells that remain: the 121 at least 10° north and the 114 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 235 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (339 records in those cells; 8 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 1925:6525 (-6.275, 146.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.7 °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 235 distinct grid cells holding 339 of the 450 in-range records (8 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (121 cells poleward of 10° north, 74 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 1925:6525 (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 -6.50_146.250, lapse-corrected -792 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 383 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.
NativeMauritius, Madagascar, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Afghanistan, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland, Fiji, Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is. · introduced: Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., St.Helena, Andaman Is., Nicobar Is., Cocos (Keeling) I., Christmas I., Tokelau-Manihiki, Hawaii, Florida, Panama, Colombia · 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 marker22.176, 120.855 · in the densest population, 195 records (20% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 968 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 339 of them in the land cells it reads, of 450 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 528 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 77 km away. 272 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 518 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 of the 968 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Chrysopogon aciculatus, photograph 1did not loadChrysopogon aciculatus, photograph 2did not loadChrysopogon aciculatus, photograph 3did not loadChrysopogon aciculatus, photograph 4did not loadChrysopogon aciculatus, photograph 5did not loadChrysopogon aciculatus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.

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

Abroma augustum Abroma augustum Devil's-cotton Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta RoyRuellia repens Ruellia repens Acanthaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMusa acuminata Musa acuminata Edible banana Photo: CC BY-SA, Ong Jyh SengAntidesma bunius Antidesma bunius Bignay Photo: CC BY, Forest Botial-JarvisOxalis barrelieri Oxalis barrelieri Barrelier's woodsorrel Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreMimosa pudica Mimosa pudica Sensitive plant Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Chrysopogon 2 in the reference

Chrysopogon gryllus Chrysopogon gryllus Poaceae Photo: CC BY, Наталья ПикаловаChrysopogon zizanioides Chrysopogon zizanioides Khuskhus Vetiver Photo: CC BY, rjtizard

Names & registers

Also known as Andropogon acicularis; Andropogon aciculatus; Andropogon aculeatus; Andropogon javanicus; Andropogon subulatus and 17 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
(Retz.) Trin.
Native to
Mauritius, Madagascar, Rodrigues +50
Wild records
968 in range · 528 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; 53 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (22 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 19 at a herbarium, 12 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 -6.50_146.250, lapse-corrected -792 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Chrysopogon aciculatus (Retz.) Trin. (the item's: IPNI 396111-1, POWO 396110-1)
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 106 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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