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Chrysopogon aciculatus
Also called Mackie's Pest, Lesser Spear Grass, Love Grass, Pilipiliula, Chore Kata, Wild Oat Grass
Golden false beardgrass is a low, tufted tropical grass about 20 to 60 cm tall, often treated as a weed or invasive in warm regions. It thrives in hot, sunny, dry-to-moist conditions and needs little care once established.
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.
The grass is widely considered an invasive species, but some cultures use it for medicinal purposes.
Blue Leaf Grass · Red false beardgrass · Chrysopogon gryllus · Chrysopogon nigritanus · Khuskhus Vetiver · False beardgrass
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Chrysopogon aciculatus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
