Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Section: Common Name: Scientific Name: Family:
Account for Chapman's Redtop - Tridens chapmanii   (Small) Chase
Members of Poaceae:
Members of Tridens with account distribution info or public map:
Flora of SE USGoogle Images
Section 5 » Family Poaceae
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Author(Small) Chase
DistributionMostly lower Piedmont and Sandhills, scattered on the Coastal Plain and Outer Banks/barrier islands.

NJ to AR, south to southern FL and southeastern TX.
AbundanceRare to uncommon, most numerous in the Sandhills. This is a State Threatened species, with a State Rank of S2.
HabitatMesic or loamy sandy soil of Longleaf Pine--Wiregrass slopes and flats, mafic soil of oak-hickory-pine ridges, openings in maritime forests.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting August-October.
IdentificationChapman's Redtop has only been treated as distinct from Tall Redtop (T. flavus) in the past 2 decades. The stems grow 4-6 feet tall, with few leaves and an open inflorescence about a foot long. In the field it looks much like the widespread Tridens flavus, but is more robust, the spikelets are darker and much browner (vs. reddish in T. flavus), and the spikes are widely divergent from the inflorescence branches (vs. rather appressed in that species).
Taxonomic CommentsA synonym is T. flavus var. chapmanii.

Other Common Name(s)Chapman's Tridens is in use by most websites, but that common name utilizes a genus name (Tridens) for a group common name -- not preferred on this website. As it is a split from the former Redtop (T. flavus), this species is here named as Chapman's Redtop and the other species as Tall Redtop.
State RankS2
Global RankG5T3 [G3]
State StatusT
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp
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Alicia JacksonFort Bragg, near jct. of King and Plank Roads, 9 October 2025. HokePhoto_natural
B.A. SorrieDare County, 2013, Kitty Hawk Woods, powerline. in loamy sand. DareBIUPhoto_natural
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