Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera)
Synonyms: Agrostis palustris, A. alba var stoloniferaCommon Names: Spreading bentgrass, redtop, bentgrass, carpet bentgrass
Description: Considered the turf grass of choice for golf courses. Introduced from Eurasia but some indication that there are populations native to North America.
Habit: Stoloniferous perennial that is sometimes mat-forming or tufted.
Leaves: Alternate along the stem, up to 4 in. long, 2-6 mm wide, flat, hairless, slightly rough. Sheaths are hairless and smooth. Ligule is 1-6 mm long, top edge is blunt to rounded and lacks a fringe of hairs.
Stems: Smooth, unbranched, prostrate from the base and geniculate or decumbent. Often roots at the node and capable of forming dense mats from leafy, horizontal, above ground stolons that reach 3 ft. or more.
Flowers: Open panicle 1.5-4 inches long, longer than wide, lance-elliptic to oblong, spreading to ascending at flowering becoming more ascending to erect. Branchlets nearly full length of branch and spikelets singular at branchlet tips. Yellowish to purple in color, up to 3 mm. long with a single floret.
Fruit and seeds: Spikelets, purple in color becoming straw-colored. Florets drop away leaving glumes. Grain is elliptic, 0.9-1.3 mm long.
Habitat: Native to Eurasia. Can be found growing in meadows, prairies, fens, shores, riverbanks, open woods, floodplains, golf course and disturbed areas.
Reproduction: By seed and vegetatively by stolons.
Similar species: Redtop (Agrostis gigantea), which is also colony-forming and has single-flowered spikelets. Redtop, however, has rhizomes instead of stolons.
Monitoring and rapid response: Hand-pulling, digging and tillage are not recommended as it could spread the plant by stolon fragments. Can be effectively controlled using any of several readily available general use herbicides such as glyphosate. Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from Minnesota Wildflowers, UC Davis Weed Research & Information Center, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service
Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org).Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).