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Eragrostis variabilis; photograph (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-02-13

Eragrostis variabilis (Gaudich.) Hook. & Arn.

Poaceae · Hawaii

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Eragrostis variabilis (Gaudich.) Hook. & Arn.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Gaudich.) Steud.

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Eragrostis variabilis, photograph (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eragrostis variabilis, photograph (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eragrostis variabilis, photograph (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eragrostis variabilis, photograph (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eragrostis variabilis, photograph (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY)Eragrostis variabilis, photograph (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY) 64 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
19.6°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,036mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–46DLI
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, October to March (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

Eragrostis variabilis is a species of grass known by the common names variable lovegrass, kawelu, emoloa, and kalamalo. It is endemic to Hawaii, where it occurs on all the main islands plus Kure Atoll, Midway Atoll, Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Lisianski Island, Laysan, and Nīhoa.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Eragrostis variabilis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (741 mm of 1,048 mm) falls in October to March. The temperature curve is flat, 3.8 °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

1,048 mm in the median year at the habitat, 741 mm of it October to March. Wettest month December at 160 mm, driest month June at 38 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 814 mm to 2,504 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,036 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,048 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: 26 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.6 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 16.2 °C to 21.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.9 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 19.6 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 64% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 Eragrostis variabilis through the yearWarmest months August and September, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 19.6 °C; 1,048 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 26–46RH 62–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 19 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C23 / 20–2422 / 19–2323 / 19–2423 / 20–2424 / 22–2525 / 23–2625 / 24–2626 / 24–2726 / 24–2725 / 23–2724 / 22–2623 / 21–24
Night °C20 / 17–2220 / 16–2120 / 16–2220 / 17–2221 / 18–2322 / 19–2423 / 20–2423 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2422 / 19–2421 / 18–23
Rain mm130 / 108–26297 / 80–214129 / 103–25871 / 50–19549 / 36–16438 / 24–11850 / 33–16349 / 33–16850 / 35–15390 / 66–213135 / 101–283160 / 126–307
DLI27 / 24–2932 / 29–3437 / 35–3942 / 40–4345 / 42–4646 / 43–4746 / 43–4644 / 41–4540 / 38–4234 / 31–3628 / 26–3026 / 23–27
RH %63 / 59–6962 / 59–6862 / 59–6862 / 59–6863 / 59–6864 / 59–6864 / 60–6864 / 60–6863 / 59–6863 / 59–6963 / 59–6963 / 59–68

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 12% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 16.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.1 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 19 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (59 records in those cells; 5 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 1373:444 (21.325, -157.775). 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 19 distinct grid cells holding 59 of the 67 in-range records (5 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1373:444 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 12% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 21.50_-157.500, lapse-corrected +309 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 338 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.
NativeHawaii · 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 marker21.342, -157.819 · in the densest population, 93 records (79% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “montane tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 117 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 59 of them in the land cells it reads, of 67 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 59 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 50 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 117 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Eragrostis variabilis, photograph 1did not loadEragrostis variabilis, photograph 2did not loadEragrostis variabilis, photograph 3did not loadEragrostis variabilis, photograph 4did not loadEragrostis variabilis, photograph 5did not loadEragrostis variabilis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Euphorbia celastroides Euphorbia celastroides 'Ekoko Photo: CC0, author not statedSapindus oahuensis Sapindus oahuensis Sapindaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAsplenium kaulfussii Asplenium kaulfussii Kaulfuss' spleenwort Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaErythrina sandwicensis Erythrina sandwicensis Hawaiian Coral Tree Photo: CC0, author not statedHibiscus arnottianus Hibiscus arnottianus White Molokai Hibiscus Photo: CC0, author not statedChenopodium oahuense Chenopodium oahuense Hawaiian Goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Neal Kelso

Other Eragrostis 22 in the reference

Eragrostis albensis Eragrostis albensis Poaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizEragrostis barrelieri Eragrostis barrelieri Mediterranean lovegrass Photo: CC0, author not statedEragrostis brownii Eragrostis brownii Brown's love grass Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyEragrostis capensis Eragrostis capensis Cape Love Grass Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloEragrostis cilianensis Eragrostis cilianensis Stink-grass Photo: CC BY, Jo RobertsEragrostis curvula Eragrostis curvula African love-grass Photo: CC BY, CK2AZEragrostis echinochloidea Eragrostis echinochloidea African lovegrass Photo: CC BY, Perry GrissomEragrostis elliottii Eragrostis elliottii Elliott's love grass Photo: CC0, author not statedEragrostis hirsuta Eragrostis hirsuta Bigtop lovegrass Photo: CC0, author not statedEragrostis hypnoides Eragrostis hypnoides Teal love grass Photo: CC0, author not statedEragrostis intermedia Eragrostis intermedia Plains love grass Photo: CC BY, Zihao WangEragrostis lehmanniana Eragrostis lehmanniana Lehmann lovegrass Photo: CC BY, Perry Grissom all 23 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Eragrostis equitans; Eragrostis hawaiiensis; Eragrostis hobdyi; Eragrostis niihauensis; Eragrostis phleoides and 6 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
(Gaudich.) Hook. & Arn.
Native to
Hawaii
Wild records
117 in range · 59 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 2705433 is Eragrostis variabilis (Gaudich.) Steud.; the page links Kew's Eragrostis variabilis (Gaudich.) Hook. & Arn., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 21.50_-157.500, lapse-corrected +309 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (12% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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