The Story of Shademaster Buffalo

Shademaster - the original soft leaf buffalo was
a great grass 20 years ago

A History of Shademaster

Shademaster Buffalo was introduced in the 1990's as the original Soft Leaf Buffalo Grass in Australia. Shademaster appeared at a time when common Buffalo grass was beginning to die away in popularity from days of old due to it's scratchy nature and heavy thatching that Australians had now had enough of.

At the same time that Buffalo was fading into history, exciting new varieties of improved Couch grass were now on the scene. These new couches were cheap and were a massive improvement from the old Couch types. Naturally, many people now began switching to these new Couch grasses.

That was until Shademaster Buffalo appeared on the scene.

The origins of Shademaster Buffalo are still unclear, and from what can be gathered about these mysterious beginnings, it appears that Shademaster was developed from several different sources, and may actually be several genetically different plants - which were all being sold under the same names of either Shademaster or Common Soft Leaf Buffalo. So from available evidence, it appears that Shademaster never was and still may not be a single Buffalo type…

With some advertising, and the scratchy nature of Buffalo now removed, Shademaster began to take it's place and revitalise Buffalo in Australia. Despite the improvements in leaf softness, Shademaster still had most of the same traits of old Buffalo, including the thick heavy thatching that is common to all Buffalo grasses… which is the same thatching that still haunts Buffalo to this day.

Which leads this author to never plant Buffalo - except in shaded areas - but that's another article…

More Problems With Shademaster

Shademaster was and is a vast improvement over old common Buffalo, and when having just these two grasses to choose between - Shademaster really does look like a premium lawn turf.

The problem with Shademaster is that today we have many more soft Buffaloes to choose from, and they all leave Shademaster in their dust for quality.

When comparing Shademaster to the new Soft Leaf Buffaloes, we can now see how inferior this grass is next to newer varieties.

Shademaster's main problems include:

• heavy thatching
• becomes very spongy underfoot
• worst winter colour of all soft Buffalo grasses
• turns purple or brown over winter

Despite how poor a grass Shademaster is when compared to it's newer peers today, it still does have the redeeming quality of doing quite well in shade, not as good as Sapphire or Matilda, but better than Sir Walter.

However, the main reason Shademaster is still around today - is price. Shademaster is cheap. And this cheap price simply provides homeowners who want a Soft Buffalo lawn with a discount alternative to the better Soft Buffalo grasses available today.

Best to remember that old adage - "you get what you pay for".

But here's the kick in the pants for Shademaster… and it's legacy…

Shademaster is the parent of several Soft Buffaloes today.

Shademaster - The Grandfather of Today's Soft Buffalo Grasses

Shademaster is the father plant or the grandfather plant of many of todays Soft Leaf Buffalo types…

Of today's best selling and quality true Soft Leaf Buffalo grasses being sold in Australia - Palmetto, Matilda, Sir Walter and Sapphire - Shademaster is responsible for 3 of these 4.

• Matilda was discovered to be a natural dwarf improvement from Shademaster - Shademaster is the father plant.
• Sir Walter was found growing amongst Shademaster as a naturally occurring derivative - Shademaster is the father plant.
• Sapphire was further bred from Sir Walter to improve on Sir Walter's natural attributes over Shademaster - Shademaster is the grandfather.
• Palmetto derives from entirely different parent stock.

While there are stories floating around about spontaneous mutations of Shademaster, these haven't been proven, first generation Shademaster derivatives seem to be naturally occurring adaptations of this plant.

The Final Legacy of Shademaster

So we can sum up Shademaster like this…

Shademaster is 10 times better than old common Buffalo.

But with all new Soft Buffalo Grasses being far superior to Shademaster, it may be time to say goodbye to Shademaster, and thank this revolutionary grass for it's service in days now gone by, and say hello to far better Buffalo grasses, including…

• Palmetto - the proven highest quality and lowest maintenance Soft Buffalo in Australia
• Sir Walter - high quality utility Soft Buffalo with better than average all-round test results
• Matilda - high quality dwarf Buffalo and very high shade tolerant Soft Buffalo
• Sapphire - high quality and best shade tolerant Soft Buffalo in Australia

And with these far superior Buffalo grass types, and the known problems of Shademaster, we thought it most appropriate to talk about Shademaster within our "discussion blog", and NOT to include it into our Lawn Varieties section for review.

Credit and acknowledgement: thanks to Ozbreed for their assistance with this article