Paspalum thunbergii Seeds | Thunberg’s Paspalum
LATIN NAME: Paspalum thunbergii
COMMON NAME: Thunberg’s Paspalum
Plant Profile
Thunberg’s Paspalum is a tufted warm-season grass of eastern Asia, forming soft green clumps half a metre high with broad, flat blades. In late summer each culm carries two, rarely three, one-sided spikes of small paired spikelets, neat and tidy against the leaves.
It grows on moist waysides, field edges and open banks, where its clumps thicken year by year. It is a common grass rather than a showy one, valued where a low, dense, wildlife-friendly tussock is wanted without the intent of a full sward. In autumn the blades bleach to a soft straw colour and the clumps stay standing until the first heavy snows flatten them. The clumps green up late, which is worth planning for: in spring the ground around them looks empty until June, and companions that emerge early fill that gap.
Science & Biotechnology
Paspalum is a large tropical genus worked over by pasture scientists, and several of its members are important salt-tolerant turf and forage grasses of warm coasts. Thunberg’s species is the East Asian wayside representative, a diploid wild relative in a genus notable for polyploid complexes, and it has appeared in comparative work on the group’s breeding systems.
Its seed ripens progressively along the spikes and drops soon after, so collections are taken in several passes through late summer. Its paired spikelets, each with a tiny fringe of silky hairs, are the field marks that separate it from the paspalums introduced from the Americas.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden it is planted on moist banks and at the edges of wilder areas, where the clumps hold soil, take ordinary mowing or a single annual cut, and feed finches and buntings on the seed. Graziers in its range know it as an acceptable summer forage on wet ground.
It is not a lawn grass in cool climates, since it starts growth late in spring, but it is a useful component of a summer-active meadow mix. It also makes an honest subject for a school meadow, being quick from seed and easy to tell apart from the lawn grasses.
Growing from Seed
Sow the seed in spring after the soil has warmed, pressing it half a centimetre into a fine surface and keeping it moist.
Germination takes two to three weeks in warmth; grow the seedlings on in full light and pot or plant them out while they are still small.
Set clumps thirty centimetres apart on moist, ordinary soil in sun, and cut the old growth down in late winter before the new blades rise. A position that stays damp after rain suits it best, and it will not need dividing for five years or more, when the clumps can be split by hand in spring. In its second season a clump will already take a light cut, and from the third year on it can be treated as a permanent part of the planting.
Our Take
A modest, clumping wayside grass that earns its place on damp banks: soil-holding, seed-bearing and content with one cut a year.
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