How to Identify Different Grass Types

Описание: An important first step in conducting any lawn care is being aware of what grass you have. Knowing your grass types will help to determine which products are safe to use on your lawn and will help guide what maintenance to undertake specific for your variety.

In this video, we’ll share some tips to help you identify some of the more common grasses…
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Buffalo Grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum)
Soft-Leaf Buffalo grasses have a broader leaf blade than other grass types and the newer breeds should be soft to touch in comparison to older scratchy varieties. The broad leaf is on average a width of 7.6mm and has a deep green colour.

Buffalo grasses grow from stolons or runners aboveground that are green, or with a dark purple tinge in colour. These runners are tubular in shape and have little to no rhizome growth belowground.

During certain times of the year or when stressed, buffalo grass will produce a seedhead that can somewhat resemble that of thin asparagus.

Couch Grass (Cynodon dactylon)
Couch grasses also known as Bermuda grasses, have a very fine leaf, much finer than buffalo, and are quick growing but highly wear tolerant. Lateral growth occurs from runners both above and below the ground.

The leaf blade has an average width of 2.5mm, is a mid to dark green and will stay generally quite short. They have a long stem that can lead to scalping if left unmown for extended periods.

The seed heads grow from a cluster of two to six spikes depending on the species.

Cynodon dactylon x C. transvaalensis
It is also important to note that there are what is known as hybrid couch grasses like TifTuf. These hybrids while very similar in appearance to that of your ordinary couches, they have superior traits and performance attributes.

Zoysia Grass
Zoysia grasses have a fine tapering leaf blade but are slightly wider than a couch. There is a whole range of different zoysia species with differences in appearance, but for the most part, they tend to all have the following traits -

Very fine to medium width leaf blade, dense growth habit, slower growing than couch or kikuyu grasses and tend to have a triangular-shaped leaf tip.

The leaf of one zoysia type, zoysia Matrella for example, has an average blade width of 4mm with a mid to dark green colour. Matrella’s like Sir Grange also have very upright leaf growth making them ideal for sporting surfaces, particularly golf.

The seedhead of this zoysia, is a single spike with small purple flowers.

Kikuyu Grass (Cenchrus clandestinus)
Kikuyu have a medium leaf width, around 5-6mm almost as broad as buffalo, but wider than couch or most zoysias. Kikuyu grass has a flat soft bright green blade, usually with a prominent mid rib line down the middle of the leaf blade.

The sheath around the base of the leaf blade becomes more noticeable at longer lengths and tends to be a pale green when young before turning brown with age.

Like couch, kikuyu has robust runners both above and below the ground allowing it to spread in an invasive manner.

The leaf also tends to grow much longer than the other grasses, so when mowing is infrequent during the warmer months, kikuyu is the first grass that will need mowing.

The seedhead appears through long white thread-like stamens when flowering.

Blue Couch (Digitaria didactyla Willd)
Not to be confused with green couches as mentioned previously, blue couch is not in fact a couch. Blue couch is a variety in its own and as its name suggests it tends to have a blue hue to the leaf blade. It does have similarities to green couches, but it’s important to identify blue couch as it is not as resilient to as broad a range of herbicides as the green couches.

Blue couch, like buffalo, does not produce the underground runners so it is less invasive than green couch.

Blue couch has a soft, deep blue to green fine to medium leaf blade. The seedhead it produces has two main branches and a tiny third branch.

We hope that this general description of some of the most common grasses helps you identify your lawn.

If you are still unsure though, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us here at Lawn Solutions Australia with some photos and we would be happy to help with identification and specific advice for your variety.

If you would like some more information relating to any specific products that we supply, please feel free to get in touch with us here at Lawn Solutions Australia. For more lawn care information and special insights into Lawn Solutions Australia, subscribe to our channel. Lawn Solutions Australia - Australia’s best and most experienced turf growers - Proud Suppliers of Sir Walter DNA Certified, Sir Grange & TifTuf 🌱 https://lawnsolutionsaustralia.com.au/

#buffalograss #couchgrass #zoysiagrass