Agrostis matsumurae Seeds | Japanese Bentgrass

Delicate, spreading panicles of Japanese bentgrass over fine green leaves — Japanese Bentgrass (*Agrostis matsumurae*): Poaceae, native to damp grassland in Japan, Korea and eastern China.

LATIN NAME: Agrostis matsumurae

COMMON NAME: Japanese Bentgrass

Plant Profile

Agrostis matsumurae is a fine, creeping bentgrass of the family Poaceae, native to Japan, Korea and eastern China, where it grows in damp grassland, on stream banks and along the edges of rice fields. It reaches twenty to fifty centimetres, with narrow, soft leaves and a delicate, spreading panicle of tiny spikelets in early summer.

It is a plant of cool, humid ground, and it spreads by slender stolons that root at the nodes, forming a close, fine-textured mat. Outside Japan it is little known, and it is usually seen only in collections of East Asian grasses or in the trial plots of turf breeders. The whole plant is soft to the touch and pale green, and it looks more like a meadow grass than a lawn grass.

Science & Biotechnology

The bentgrasses include the finest turf grasses in the world: creeping bent, Agrostis stolonifera, is the species of most golf greens in temperate climates, and velvet bent, Agrostis canina, is used where an even finer sward is wanted. Agrostis matsumurae belongs to that group and shares its fine leaves and its tolerance of close mowing, but it has been far less studied.

Japanese turf researchers have looked at it as a native alternative for landscaping, since it is adapted to the humid summers and cold winters of the archipelago and needs less input than introduced bentgrasses. Work on the genus has also used Agrostis species to study metal tolerance, since populations on mine spoil have evolved resistance to copper, zinc and arsenic, and the mechanism involves the same transporters that handle essential nutrients.

Uses & Benefits

In Japan it is a minor component of native grassland and has some regional use in landscaping and turf, particularly where a local provenance is wanted. It is not a commercial turf species, and outside Japan it is grown by specialists and by botanic gardens with collections of East Asian flora.

In a garden it is a plant for a damp, cool corner, the edge of a pond or a shady lawn, where its fine texture and soft green are an asset. It is also a useful subject for a grass collection, since it flowers freely and sets seed in a cool summer, and it can be raised in a pot on a bright windowsill without special treatment.

Growing from Seed

The seed is very fine, so sow it on the surface of a firm, finely sieved compost and do not cover it; light is needed for germination. Mix it with sand to spread it evenly, and water from below or with a fine rose to avoid washing it into the corners of the tray.

Keep the tray at 15-20 °C in bright light, and the seedlings show in ten to fourteen days. They are tiny and slow at first, and they should be pricked out in clumps rather than singly once they are large enough to handle. Plant out in damp, humus-rich soil in sun or part shade, and keep the ground moist through the first summer.

Our Take

A little-known Japanese bentgrass with the fine texture of its famous relatives. One for the grass collector and the damp corner, not the bowling green.

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