Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Elliott's Bluestem - Andropogon gyrans   W.W. Ashe
Members of Poaceae:
Members of Andropogon with account distribution info or public map:
Flora of SE USGoogle Images
Section 5 » Order Cyperales » Family Poaceae
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AuthorW.W. Ashe
DistributionCoastal Plain and Sandhills, infrequent in the Piedmont, but scarce in the low Mountains. Some of the gaps in the map will be filled with additional collecting, and the only likely real gap is in the higher mountains.

NJ to MO south to FL and TX.
AbundanceFrequent to common in the Coastal Plain and Sandhills; uncommon in the Piedmont; rare in the Mountains. Perhaps overlooked, however. It is widespread enough over the state to be given a State Rank of S5 by the website editors.
HabitatDry to xeric (sometimes mesic) pine-oak sandhills, pine-oak scrub, woodlands with Blackjack Oak (Quercus marilandica), clearings, old fields.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting September-October.
IdentificationElliott's Bluestem is relatively easy to identify, due to the elongate stem sheaths that overlap and which hide most of the inflorescence (until late in the season). In other bluestems the stem sheaths are shorter and the inflorescences are readily seen.
Taxonomic CommentsAnatherum gyrans (Ashe) Vorontsova & Kellogg is a synonym published in 2023 by Vorontsove et al. Older texts included A. perangustatus as A. gyrans var. stenophyllus. It occurs only in wetlands. Older references named A. gyrans as A. elliottii, and the common name has stuck despite the change in scientific names. Note also that an old entity -- Andropogon elliottii var. gracilior has been detected in NC by Bryan England; he is working on its taxonomic status.

While the genus Andropogon is quite easy to recognize in the field, ID of species is not so easy and there are no shortcuts. Readers are strongly advised to read the introductory paragraphs in Weakley (2025) and to use his key. Once one has successfully keyed out several species, or compared collections with verified specimens, one can learn to recognize them in the field.
In 2023 Vorontsova et al. published a paper (click on our References tab) in which they split off Anatherum from Andropogon. Most of the former are found in the Americas and Africa. For now, until the dust settles, the NCVP taxon editors will provide the new names in Anatherum as synonyms of the traditional Andropogon.
Other Common Name(s)None
State Rank[S5]
Global RankG5
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B.A. SorrieSandhills Game Land, late Sept 2019. RichmondPhoto_natural
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