Herbaceous & other plants

Grasses, ferns, bamboos and shrubs: what grows low and shows at the roadside. Alone they rarely name a country, but some are strong markers — gorse on Atlantic heaths, bamboo in humid Asia, tall savanna grasses. Read them with the rest of the scene.

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Eulalia

Miscanthus sinensis · Field grass

The eulalia: silver plumes of East Asian hillsides.

ADULT SIZE: 1–2 m, big dense tussocks with silky autumn plumes.
IN PLAY: Whole slopes of plumes in Japan and Korea in autumn — the postcard susuki; planted ornamentally everywhere else.
NATIVE: Indonesia · Japan · Laos · Malaysia · Philippines · Russia · South Korea · Taiwan · Thailand · Vietnam

Spanish moss

Tillandsia usneoides

Spanish moss: grey beards hung from the oaks of the South.

LEAVES: Rootless silver-grey garlands draped over branches — an air bromeliad, not a moss.
IN PLAY: Oaks draped in grey beards: the American Deep South — Louisiana, coastal Georgia, Florida — and humid Latin America too. Bayou mood at a glance.
NATIVE: Argentina · Bermuda · Bolivia · Brazil · Chile · Colombia · Costa Rica · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · France · Guatemala · Mexico · Panama · Paraguay · Peru · Puerto Rico · United States of America · Uruguay

Nootka lupine

Lupinus nootkatensis

The blue-purple carpet that conquered Iceland.

ADULT SIZE: Up to 60 cm tall.
FRUIT: Bright bluish-purple flowers; seeds in fuzzy pods.
IN PLAY: Brought to Iceland in 1945 against erosion, it now covers all the island’s lowlands: purple sheets over bare heath mean Iceland in summer. Native to the Pacific coast, from Alaska to British Columbia.
NATIVE: Canada · United States of America

Kans grass

Saccharum spontaneum · Field grass

The kans grass: white plumes of South Asian riverbanks.

ADULT SIZE: 2–4 m, tall canes in dense stands with silver-white plumes.
IN PLAY: Plumed thickets along rivers and fallows of India and Nepal (flowering after the monsoon) — the tall grass of the Terai plains.
NATIVE: Australia · Bangladesh · Bhutan · Cambodia · Egypt · Ghana · India · Indonesia · Israel · Italy · Japan · Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kenya · Kyrgyzstan · Laos · Lebanon · Malaysia · Nepal · Nigeria · Oman · Philippines · Qatar · Russia · South Korea · Sri Lanka · Taiwan · Thailand · Tunisia · Turkey · Uganda · United Arab Emirates · Vietnam

Large-leaved lupine

Lupinus polyphyllus

The garden lupin: the escapee lining northern roads.

ADULT SIZE: 0.5–1.5 m, upright blue-violet to pink spikes.
IN PLAY: A North American garden escapee: its June–July flowering verges say Finland, Norway, New Zealand — its Nootka cousin holds Iceland.
NATIVE: Canada · United States of America

Fireweed

Chamaenerion angustifolium

The fireweed: the bright pink that retakes northern clearings.

ADULT SIZE: 1–2 m, pink spikes in dense stands.
IN PLAY: The pink sweeps of July–August along boreal roads: Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska, Russia — the first fireworks after a clear-cut or a burn.
NATIVE: Albania · Austria · Bangladesh · Belgium · Bhutan · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Bulgaria · Canada · Croatia · Czech Republic · Denmark · Estonia · Faroe Islands · Finland · France · Georgia · Germany · Greece · Greenland · Hungary · Iceland · India · Ireland · Israel · Italy · Japan · Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kosovo · Kyrgyzstan · Latvia · Lebanon · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Mexico · Mongolia · Montenegro · Nepal · Netherlands · North Macedonia · Norway · Poland · Romania · Russia · Serbia · Slovakia · Slovenia · South Korea · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Thailand · Turkey · Ukraine · United Kingdom · United States of America

Chicory

Cichorium intybus

The chicory: sky-blue stars of the summer verge.

ADULT SIZE: 0.5–1.2 m, stiff branched stems with pale blue flowers.
IN PLAY: The blue of temperate roadsides in high summer, Europe and North America — a season clue more than a place one; as a root crop it says Flanders and northern France.
NATIVE: Albania · Austria · Belgium · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Bulgaria · Croatia · Czech Republic · Denmark · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Georgia · Germany · Greece · Hungary · India · Israel · Italy · Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kosovo · Kyrgyzstan · Latvia · Lebanon · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Montenegro · Netherlands · North Macedonia · Norway · Poland · Portugal · Romania · Russia · Serbia · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Tunisia · Turkey · Ukraine

Sagebrush

Artemisia tridentata · Pruned hedge row

The sagebrush: the grey-green ocean of the American Great Basin.

ADULT SIZE: 0.5–2 m, a silvery gnarled shrub, strongly aromatic.
LEAVES: Small wedge leaves tipped with three teeth.
IN PLAY: Endless grey-green steppe between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada: Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, eastern Oregon — the ‘empty’ West of the long straight roads.
NATIVE: Canada · Mexico · United States of America

Gorse

Ulex europaeus · Pruned hedge row

The gorse: the thorny gold of Atlantic heaths.

ADULT SIZE: 1–3 m, a dense, wholly spiny bush.
FRUIT: Coconut-scented golden flowers nearly all year round.
IN PLAY: The yellow hillsides of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland and Wales — and, invasively, New Zealand: a slope of thorny gold under a grey sky is Atlantic or Kiwi.
NATIVE: Belgium · France · Germany · Ireland · Italy · Luxembourg · Netherlands · Portugal · Spain · Switzerland · United Kingdom

Cosmos (cosmea)

Cosmos bipinnatus

The cosmos: the pink and white verges of the Highveld at summer’s end.

ADULT SIZE: 60 cm to 2 m; pink, purple or white flowers.
IN PLAY: The South African Highveld — southern Gauteng, the eastern Free State, Mpumalanga, up to northern Lesotho: from February to April, ribbons of pink, white and purple along the roads and maize fields. Out of season nothing shows: a clue to the date as much as the place. Native to the Mexican highlands.
NATIVE: Mexico

Hogweed

Heracleum

The giant hogweeds: man-high umbels along the road.

ADULT SIZE: Up to 3–5 m in the giants, hollow purple-blotched stems.
IN PLAY: Stands of tall white umbels along RUSSIAN roads (the invasive Sosnowsky’s hogweed) are a famous marker — European Russia, the Baltics, into Poland.
NATIVE: Albania · Austria · Belgium · Bhutan · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Bulgaria · Canada · Croatia · Czech Republic · Denmark · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Georgia · Germany · Greece · Hungary · India · Indonesia · Ireland · Israel · Italy · Japan · Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kenya · Kosovo · Kyrgyzstan · Latvia · Lebanon · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Mongolia · Montenegro · Nepal · Netherlands · North Macedonia · Norway · Poland · Portugal · Romania · Russia · Serbia · Slovakia · Slovenia · South Korea · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Thailand · Turkey · Uganda · Ukraine · United Kingdom · United States of America · Vietnam

Frailjones

Espeletia

The frailejones: woolly monks of the Andean páramos.

ADULT SIZE: 1–5 m, a trunk sheathed in dead leaves, a woolly rosette on top.
IN PLAY: They live ONLY in the páramo: above 3,000 m in Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador — a misty moor peopled with downy figures, unique on earth.
NATIVE: Brazil · Colombia · Ecuador · Peru

Mulleins

Verbascum

The mulleins: woolly yellow candles standing on dry banks.

ADULT SIZE: 0.5–2 m, a felted grey-green rosette then a tall upright flower spike.
LEAVES: Large woolly leaves, soft as felt.
IN PLAY: The yellow candles of the Anatolian steppes — the shores of Lake Van are dotted with them — and of dry banks across the Balkans and the Caucasus; Turkey is the genus’s world heartland. On the map, the full zone shows where the big mulleins stand out on Street View (Balkans, Anatolia, Caucasus); the faint range around it is the whole genus, present but rarely eye-catching.
NATIVE: Albania · Austria · Bangladesh · Belgium · Bhutan · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Bulgaria · Cambodia · Croatia · Czech Republic · Denmark · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Georgia · Germany · Greece · Hungary · India · Ireland · Israel · Italy · Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kenya · Kosovo · Kyrgyzstan · Laos · Latvia · Lebanon · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Mongolia · Montenegro · Nepal · Netherlands · North Macedonia · Norway · Oman · Poland · Portugal · Qatar · Romania · Russia · Rwanda · São Tomé and Príncipe · Serbia · Slovakia · Slovenia · Spain · Sri Lanka · Sweden · Switzerland · Thailand · Tunisia · Turkey · Uganda · Ukraine · United Arab Emirates · United Kingdom · Vietnam

Bushman grasses

Stipagrostis · Field grass

The Bushman grasses: the silvery tufts that make the Namib and Kalahari plains shimmer.

ADULT SIZE: For the most widespread, S. ciliata: 30–100 cm, annual or perennial depending on rain, with a ring of white hairs at each node.
IN PLAY: Namibia and the Northern Cape: whole plains of pale tufts with feathery heads, silvery blond in low sun, right up the red dunes — after the summer rains the desert wears a pale veil. Only South Africa and Namibia are painted: that is where Tephras validated the grid.
NATIVE: Botswana · Egypt · Eswatini · Georgia · India · Israel · Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kenya · Kyrgyzstan · Lebanon · Lesotho · Namibia · Nigeria · Oman · Qatar · Russia · Senegal · South Africa · Spain · Tunisia · Turkey · Uganda · United Arab Emirates

Bromeliads

Bromeliaceae

The bromeliads: tank rosettes perched on branches.

LEAVES: Strap-leaf rosettes holding water at their heart — most live ON trees.
IN PLAY: Branches loaded with rosettes = tropical America (the family is almost wholly American) — the more a tree carries, the wetter the air: Andean cloud forest and the Mata Atlântica.
NATIVE: Argentina · Bermuda · Bolivia · Brazil · Chile · Colombia · Costa Rica · Curaçao · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · France · Guatemala · Mexico · Netherlands · Panama · Paraguay · Peru · Puerto Rico · United States of America · Uruguay

Bamboos

Bambuseae · Field grass

The bamboos: grasses as tall as trees.

ADULT SIZE: From 1 to over 30 m by genus — woody culms with marked nodes.
LEAVES: Fine lance-shaped foliage in light plumes that bow in the wind.
IN PLAY: Giant clumps in green fountains say monsoon Asia first — but also Colombia (the guadua of coffee country) and hedges across the tropics. A tidy tended grove leans East Asia.
NATIVE: Argentina · Australia · Bangladesh · Bhutan · Bolivia · Brazil · Cambodia · Chile · Colombia · Costa Rica · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · France · Guatemala · India · Indonesia · Laos · Malaysia · Mexico · Nepal · Panama · Paraguay · Peru · Philippines · Puerto Rico · Sri Lanka · Taiwan · Thailand · Uruguay · Vietnam

Ferns

Polypodiopsida

The ferns: fronds wherever the air stays damp — and trunks in the tropics.

LEAVES: Cut fronds unrolling from fiddleheads.
IN PLAY: TREE FERNS are the clue that counts: their parasols on fibrous trunks say New Zealand, Tasmania, the misty Andes or Réunion — low fern banks only say moisture.
NATIVE: Albania · American Samoa · Argentina · Australia · Austria · Bangladesh · Belgium · Bermuda · Bhutan · Bolivia · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Brazil · Bulgaria · Cambodia · Canada · Chile · Colombia · Costa Rica · Croatia · Czech Republic · Denmark · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · Egypt · Estonia · Eswatini · Finland · France · Georgia · Germany · Ghana · Greece · Guam · Guatemala · Hungary · India · Indonesia · Ireland · Israel · Italy · Japan · Jordan · Kazakhstan · Kenya · Kosovo · Laos · Latvia · Lebanon · Lesotho · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Madagascar · Malaysia · Mexico · Mongolia · Montenegro · Nepal · Netherlands · New Zealand · Nigeria · North Macedonia · Northern Mariana Islands · Norway · Oman · Panama · Paraguay · Peru · Philippines · Poland · Portugal · Puerto Rico · Romania · Russia · Rwanda · São Tomé and Príncipe · Serbia · Slovakia · Slovenia · South Africa · South Korea · Spain · Sri Lanka · Sweden · Switzerland · Taiwan · Thailand · Tunisia · Turkey · Uganda · Ukraine · United Kingdom · United States of America · Uruguay · Vietnam

Sources and licences

Govaerts, R. et al. — World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ — CC BY 4.0. Aires par pays botanique (WGSRPD niveau 3).

Sources: Artemisia tridentata · Bamboo · Bromeliaceae · Chamaenerion angustifolium · Chicorium intybus · Cosmos bipinnatus · Espeletia · Fern · Heracleum mantegazzianum · Lupinus nootkatensis · Lupinus polyphyllus · Miscanthus sinensis · Saccharum spontaneum · Spanish moss · Stipagrostis ciliata · Ulex europaeus · Verbascum

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