Achnatherum calamagrostis

Achnatherum calamagrostis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Subfamily:	Pooideae
Genus:	Achnatherum
Species:	A. calamagrostis
Binomial name
Achnatherum calamagrostis (L.) Beauv.
Synonyms
Agrostis argenteaLam. Agrostis calamagrostisL. Arundo calamagrostis(L.) Vest Calamagrostis argenteaDC. Lasiagrostis calamagrostis(L.) Link Stipa calamagrostis(L.) Wahlenb. Stipa lasiagrostisG.Nicholson Streptachne calamagrostis(L.) Dumort.

Achnatherum calamagrostis (syn. Stipa calamagrostis) is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, known by the common names spear grass, needle grass, and silver spike grass. It is an ornamental grass native to the clearings in the mountains of central and southern Europe, which grows in mounds of blue-green leaves and long, silvery plumes. A. calamagrostis can grow up to 91 cm in height. ^[1]

Under the synonym Stipa calamagrostis, this plant, ^[2] and the cultivars 'Allgäu' ^[3] and 'Lemperg' have won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. ^[4]

Taxonomy

Original Description

The species Agrostis calamagrostis was first described by Linnaeus in 1759 in Systema naturae per regna tria naturae. It was later transferred to the genus Achnatherum by Palisot de Beauvois in 1812 in his Essai d’une Nouvelle Agrostographi. ^[5] The original protologue for Agrostis calamgrostis reads (translated): ^[6]

74. Agrostis. Calyx two‑valved; one‑flowered; corolla somewhat smaller; stigmas longitudinally hispid.

*Awned.

Calamagrostis. Panicle thickened; outer petal (lemma) wholly woolly, awned at the apex; culm branched. (Scheuchzer, Gramina, p. 146.) ^[a]

References

1. Achnatherum calamagrostis| Silver Spike Grass | High Country Gardens, highcountrygardens.com. Retrieved 2025-08-09
2. "Stipa calamagrostis". www.rhs.org. Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
3. "Stipa calamagrostis 'Allgäu'". RHS. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
4. "Stipa calamagrostis 'Lemperg'". RHS. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
5. Palisot de Beauvois, Ambroise-Marie-François-Joseph (1812). Essai d’une nouvelle agrostographie, ou, Nouveaux genres des graminées : avec figures représentant les caractères de tous les genres. Chez l’auteur. pp. 19–20.
6. Linné, Carl von, Salvius, Lars (1759). Caroli Linnaei...Systema naturae per regna tria naturae :secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Vol. 2. Impensis Direct. Laurentii Salvii. p. 872.

Notes

1. Johann Jakob Scheuchzer had earlier described the plant under the name Calamagrostis in Agrostographia (1719, p. 146), but this was a pre‑Linnaean usage. Linnaeus’s 1759 account constitutes the valid basionym protologue for Agrostis calamagrostis.

External links

• Chiltern Seeds description