A perennial, stoloniferous, carpet forming, hairless grass. 150-600 mm tall.
Description:
Cotyledons:
One
Leaves:
Hairless but there may be a few hairs where the blade joins the sheath and along the edge of the blade.
Blade - Flat or keeled. Striped. Narrowly egg shaped to parallel sided. 80-250 mm long by 60-120 mm wide. Flattened and folded along the obvious midrib. Rarely with hairs on the upper side, never hairs on the lower side, hairs on the edges.
Ligule - short membranous rim that is flat on top and is usually fringed with fine hairs.
Sheath - flattened, keeled. Striped. Often have a purple tinge. Edges are translucent. Deeply split. Hairless or rarely hairy on the edges.
Auricles - None.
Stems:
Slender or in tufts. 1-3 nodes. Nodes are densely hairy.
Flattened. Often purplish. Nodes often hairy.
Flower head:
Main axis (rachis) is triangular with concave faces giving 3 distinct lengthwise ridges. Usually 2 or 3 branches, with the upper 2 paired and one longer than the other.
Spikes - 2 or 3 usually (less than 5). No stalk. Slender. Erect or spreading. 40-100 x 1-15mm.
Flowers:
Spikelets - Single, one flowered. Oval to egg shaped. Erect. Green or purplish. Alternate and held close to the stalk. 2.2-3.5 mm long by 1 mm wide.
Florets - Bisexual one, oval to oblong, rounded top, shorter than spikelet.
Glumes - Upper one, oval to egg shaped, 2-4 ribs near the edges, middle is papery.
Palea - Bisexual one, hard, thin and brittle.
Lemma - Empty one similar to glume. Bisexual one hard, thin and brittle.
Stamens -
Anthers -
Seeds:
2.2-3.5 mm long by 1 mm wide.
Roots:
Creeping stems that root at nodes. Fibrous underground roots. Occasionally forms rhizomes.
Key Characters:
Biology:
Life cycle:
Perennial.
Physiology:
Reproduction:
Flowering times:
October to March.
Seed Biology and Germination:
Vegetative Propagules:
Stem fragments.
Hybrids:
Allelopathy:
Population Dynamics and Dispersal:
Spreads by creeping stems that root at the nodes.
Origin and History:
Tropical America.
Introduced as a lawn grass.
Distribution:
NSW, QLD, WA.
Habitats:
Warm moist areas. Intolerant of drought.
Climate:
Soil:
Plant Associations:
Significance:
Beneficial:
Lawn grass
Spring and early summer fodder grass.
Detrimental:
Weed of other lawns, poor pastures, rotation crops, disturbed areas and grassland.
Toxicity:
None reported.
Legislation:
None.
Management and Control:
Thresholds:
Eradication strategies:
Herbicide resistance:
Biological Control:
Related plants:
Narrow leaved Carpet grass (A. affinis).
Plants of similar appearance:
Narrow leaved Carpet grass (Axonopus affinis) has longer, narrower leaves and longer flowering heads and no hairs on the leaves. The fertile lemma is 0.8 x the length of the spikelet whilst in Axonopus compressus it is the same length.
Summer grass (Digitaria sanguinalis) has hairy leaves that distinguish it from Carpet grass.
Lazarides, M. and Hince, B. (1993). CSIRO handbook of economic plants of Australia. (CSIRO, Melbourne). #153.2.
Marchant, N.G., Wheeler, J.R., Rye, B.L., Bennett, E.M., Lander, N.S. and Macfarlane, T.D. (1987). Flora of the Perth Region. (Western Australian Herbarium, Department of Agriculture, Western Australia). p942.
Acknowledgments:
Collated by HerbiGuide. Phone 08 98444064 or www.herbiguide.com.au for more information.