Bahiagrass

Paspalum notatum, commonly known as bahiagrass, is a deep-rooted perennial warm-season grass in the family Poaceae native to South and Central America and introduced widely as a pasture and turf species throughout the southeastern United States and other warm regions. It forms a coarse, sod-forming turf from short, stout, scaly rhizomes, sending up tough flowering culms typically 20 to 75 centimeters tall. The leaf blades are flat to folded, linear, and tapered to a fine point, with a fringed ligule and largely glabrous sheaths. The distinctive inflorescence is a Y-shaped panicle, normally bearing two (occasionally three) divergent spike-like racemes at the culm apex, each rachis lined with two rows of smooth, ovate, plano-convex spikelets. Bahiagrass tolerates poor, sandy, and acidic soils, withstands drought once established, and is widely used for permanent pasture, roadside stabilization, and low-maintenance lawns.