''Eremochloa ophiuroides'', or centipedegrass, is a species of grass in the family

Poaceae Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivate ...

. Used as a warm season

lawn grass A lawn () is an area of soil-covered land planted with Poaceae, grasses and other durable plants such as clover lawn, clover which are maintained at a short height with a lawn mower (or sometimes grazing animals) and used for aesthetic an ...

, it forms thick

sod Sod is the upper layer of turf that is harvested for transplanting. Turf consists of a variable thickness of a soil medium that supports a community of turfgrasses. In British and Australian English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', ...

s and spreads by

stolons In biology, a stolon ( from Latin '' stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as a runner, is a horizontal connection between parts of an organism. It may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton. Typically, animal stolons ar ...

Overview

The grass is medium to light green in color and has a coarse texture with short upright seedhead stems that grow to about 3-5 inches. Native to

Southern China Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions that display certain differences in terms of their geography, demographics, economy, and culture. Extent The Qinling–Daba Mountains serve as the transition zone between ...

, it was introduced to the United States in 1916 and has since become one of the common grasses in the

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...

and

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

. It can also be considered a weed.

Cultivation

Centipedegrass is a low maintenance grass. It requires infrequent mowing. Centipedegrass has medium shade tolerance and limited traffic tolerance.J. T. Brosnan and J. Deputy
"Centipedegrass."
TM-14. College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. March 2008. Retrieved 25 January 2023. It is shallow rooted and has poor drought tolerance. Centipedegrass survives in mild climates without several hard freezes. With light freezes it will turn brown but recover and re-green as the

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...

rises. It does well in sandy and acidic soils. Centipedegrass has low fertilization requirements.

References

External links

Turf & Grass RollsCentipede Lawns
- The University of Georgia College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences Lawn grasses Andropogoneae Flora of Asia {{Panicoideae-stub