Click on images to enlarge
creeping habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
habit growing in a lawn (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
leaves (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of creeping stems and leaves (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
young seed-head (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of seeds (Photo: Steve Hurst at USDA PLANTS Database)
seedling (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
young plant (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
infestation growing in a rainforest understorey (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
infestation growing in a mown shady area (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
habit with upright flowering stems (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of stem showing roots being produced at its joints (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
shorter and broader leaves along the creeping stems (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of leaf undersides and hairy stem joints (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
seed-heads (Photo: Chris Gardiner)
seed-heads emerging from the upper leaf sheaths (Photo: Chris Gardiner)
Scientific Name
Axonopus compressus (Sw.) P. Beauv.
Synonyms
Milium compressum Sw.Paspalum platycaule Poir.
Family
Gramineae (South Australia)Poaceae (Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory)
Common Names
blanket grass, broad leaved carpet grass, broadleaf carpet grass, broadleaf carpetgrass, broad-leafed carpet grass, broad-leaved carpet grass, carpet grass, lawn grass, Louisiana grass, savannah grass, tropical carpet grass
Origin
Native to southern North America (i.e. south-eastern USA and Mexico), Central America (i.e. Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama), the Caribbean and South America (i.e. French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay).
Naturalised Distribution
Widely naturalised in northern and eastern Australia. It is most common in the coastal districts of Queensland and northern New South Wales. Also naturalised in the northern parts of the Northern Territory, on Lord Howe Island and on Christmas Island. Possibly also naturalised in the northern parts of Western Australia.
Notes
Broad-leaved carpet grass (Axonopus compressus ) is regarded as an environmental weed in Queensland and New South Wales. It is on the list of the 200 most invasive plants species of south-eastern Queensland and it also appeared quite prominently on the New South Wales North Coast environmental weed survey, which was conducted in the year 2000.
This lawn grass is mainly a weed of habitation (e.g. parks, gardens, roadsides and waste areas), but it also invades shaded sites in moist grasslands, bushland, riparian areas and rainforest margins. For example, it was one of the most common weed species detected during a survey of swamp sclerophyll forests on the coastal floodplains in the New South Wales North Coast region. It has also been recorded as a weed of the corridors that are created for powerlines and road networks in rainforests in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area in northern Queensland.
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