Warm Season Grasses

A warm season Couch lawn

What Are Warm Season Grasses

Grasses are first divided into 2 separate categories, Warm Season Grasses, and Cool Season Grasses. As their names suggest, they are both best suited to differing climatic regions, and require different types of lawn care.

Characteristics Of Lawn Types

Warm Season Grasses can in theory generate from both seed and runners. However, most of the warm season grasses being grown today are Hybrids, meaning their seeds are sterile, and so the lawn must be regenerated from its runners only.

The main characteristic of the Warm Season Grasses is their plant structure, which is made up of runners that creep and grow laterally along the ground. This structure allows the lawn to spread and self-repair over damaged areas. The same characteristic also allows the lawn to spread into surrounding areas such as garden beds.

The runners can be divided into 2 categories. Above ground runners are called Stolons, and below ground runners are call Rhizomes. Not all Warm Season Grasses have both Stolons and Rhizomes. For example, Couch and Kikuyu grasses will have both Stolons and Rhizomes, and varieties such as Buffalo lawns have only Stolons.

Tillering In Lawns

Tillering - more green leaf and less runners

Warm Season Grasses will also thicken and green up by the Tillering effect. It is a desirable process to encourage greener leaf growth that results in a greener and more lush lawn. The process also lessens the lawn runners from spreading out as quickly as they normally would.

Tillering can be encouraged by regular lawn mowing as part of our lawn care practices, where the regular removal of a small amount of leaf material prompts the lawn plant to use it's energy to grow new green shoots, which takes priority over the lawn establishing new runners.

Repair and Spreading Of Warm Season Lawns

An above-ground stolon of a Buffalo lawn

By their very nature, Warm Season Grasses will spread into surrounding areas with their runners, this can be a great advantage when allowing the lawn to repair itself from damage, or to grow into new areas where we want lawn to spread.

Alternatively, this can also be a major cause of concern, when our lawn begin to invade our garden beds, creating a constant struggle and battle to keep each separated.

Which Lawn Is The Most Aggressive

Varying lawn varieties have different levels of aggressiveness. The two most aggressive and invasive species are Couch and Kikuyu lawns, where they will continue to spread and grow at rapid rates. With their underground runners (Rhizomes), the lawn will burrow deep under garden bed edging, under up and through paving, and the like. And their above ground runners (Stolons) are capable of crawling over paving and other obstacles to find a new home.

Due to the aggressiveness of these lawn varieties, they are very fast to grow on turf farms, and as such are very cheap to purchase. However, this cheap initial cost is quickly outpaced by the higher costs involved in mowing, maintenance, and vertimowing.

The Least Aggressive Lawn

Varieties such as Queensland Blue, Zoysia and Buffalo are far less aggressive species, they grow slower and as such cost more to initially purchase. However, this extra cost is re-paid many times over to the Lawn Owner, with lower mowing costs, vertimowing costs, and a lot of time and money saved in lawn care and on removing the lawn from the garden beds.

Lawn Mowing Heights

All Warm Season Grasses can be mowed at lower heights than their Cool Season cousins. When well cared for and mowed with a Cylinder mower, heights of around 12 mm are common in varieties such as Queensland Blue, Couch, and Zoysia. Varieties such as Kikuyu and Soft Leaf Buffaloes will require higher lawn mowing heights at a minimum of 20 - 25 mm.

Varieties

• Couch
• Buffalo
• Queensland Blue
• Zoysia
• Kikuyu
• Durban Grass

• Warm Climate Grasses
• C4 Grasses
• Runner Type Grasses