Paspalum notatum Seeds | Bahia Grass
LATIN NAME: Paspalum notatum
COMMON NAME: Bahia Grass
Plant Profile
The clone-making rests on apospory, in which an egg cell grows from unreduced tissue in the ovule, joined by pseudogamy, where fertilisation of the central cell is needed to feed the embryo but not to set its genes. The ‘Pensacola’ ecotype is the one most planted: it sends out long stolons, tolerates colder winters than the type, and roots where its runners touch down, which makes it spread into a solid turf. ‘Argentine’ is the denser, warmer alternative for lawns and close pasture.
The plant is a low, creeping perennial with flat, grey-green leaves and two to four slender seed heads held in a narrow V, the shape that gives bahiagrass its look in a field. The stolons run along the ground and root at the nodes, and the leaf blades are broader than those of many pasture grasses, which is why stock take it readily. The root system is deep for a turf grass, the trait that lets it survive drought that browns the others.
As a forage, bahiagrass is dependable rather than rich; it yields steady bulk through the warm season and stores well as hay, though its protein runs lower than that of legume mixes and it is best fed with a supplement. The leaf carries carotenoids and hydroxycinnamic acids common to the warm-season grasses, and the deep root draws minerals that show up in the ash. For a lawn it is valued for low input, not for a fine texture.
Science & Biotechnology
The apomictic habit is a headache for breeders because it locks the genotype and blocks the normal crosses used to improve a grass. Research centres on the apospory-specific genomic region that controls the trait, with the aim of switching apomixis on or off so that superior types can be fixed and poor ones recombined. Until that tool is in hand, selection in bahiagrass means finding the right wild ecotype and multiplying it, not crossing it.
Uses & Benefits
The deep root and the running stolon make bahiagrass a first choice for holding banks, road verges and mine spoil where little else will establish, and it is the default low-care lawn in hot, sandy regions. It tolerates poor soils, salt spray and close grazing, and once rooted it crowds out most weeds. The cost is a coarser leaf and a seed head that some find untidy, which is why it suits utility ground more than show beds.
To stabilise a slope, drill or broadcast the seed into a firm, bare seedbed in late spring, then roll it so the seed sits in contact with the soil; the stolons do the rest once the stand is up. Mix the light seed with a little sand or a nurse grass to carry it evenly, and water the bank by gentle spray until the cover closes. On a road cut, a single sowing often holds for the life of the road.
Growing from Seed
Bahiagrass is the grass that farms and roadsides in the warm world lean on precisely because it hardly ever bothers to breed. Instead of mixing genes through normal seed, it reproduces by apomixis: the seed forms without fertilisation and is a clone of the mother plant, so a good ecotype stays good and a poor one stays poor. This quirk is why the variety you sow matters more than the seed lot, and why a single vigorous type can cover a hillside for decades without changing.
Bahiagrass seed is slow to bulk and low in pure live seed, so sow generous rates and expect a thin first season while the stolons run. It wants warmth and sun, a pH in the mild-acid range, and a seedbed that is not too rich, since lush growth invites disease. Keep the new sowing weed-free until it runs.
Drill the seed shallow, no more than one centimetre deep, or broadcast and roll it in, and keep the surface moist until the seedlings show their first true leaves, which are the broad bahia blade rather than a fine grass thread. Thin or thicken by overseeding once the plants reach five centimetres and begin to tiller. The stand fills by stolon more than by seedling, so patience in year one pays off.
Mow a lawn or a close pasture to about five centimetres to keep it neat and to push sideways spread; cut higher in the heat of summer. Feed lightly with nitrogen if a denser sward is wanted, but do not overfeed or thatch builds. In its warm range it stays green through winter; at the cold edge of its range it browns with frost and greens again in spring without help, and the crown survives to regrow.
Our Take
For other warm-ground grasses to mix or compare, sow Lolium perenne for a cool-season partner, Cynodon dactylon for a finer turf, and Sorghum bicolor for a tall forage; bahiagrass is the one to pick where the brief is hold the soil and ask for nothing.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Bahia Grass often pair it with these related subjects: