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Grass species are notoriously difficult to identify. P. urvillei is a perennial grass that grows in clumps or tufts of a few to many stems growing from a short rootstock. The stems are purplish and hairy at the base but green and smooth towards the top;they are from 0.75 to 2.5 metres tall. The blades are green, vase-shaped, bristly and firm, 12 to 48 cm long (commonly 20 to 30 cm) and 3 to 15 mm wide;rarely, they can be up to 65 cm long and 2 cm wide. The inflorescences are 10-20 cm long, borne on a central axis 4-13 cm long. Each flower cluster bears six to 25 spikes. Four to thirty seedheads, grouped on spreading branches, have paired seeds lined up in 4 rows. Seeds are brown when mature and fringed with fine hairs, and may feel sticky. They characteristically lie on one side of the branch.

Related invasive species

  • Paspalum urvillei

Related Farm Practice

  • Systems
  • Activity
  • Invasive species
  • Pastures
  • Hosts
Impact

Paspalum urvillei is a well-known weed of agricultural fields and disturbed areas (Randall, 2012), but it has been widely introduced as a forage grass to ecosystems outside South America (Hitchcock, 1936;PIER, 2012;Bowen & Hollinger, 2002). It is now widely naturalized and is able to invade grasslands, shrublands and wetlands. It invades and establishes in highly disturbed natural ecosystems where it grows in dense stands, displacing indigenous vegetation and altering the lower strata (Western Australian Herbarium, 2012). It is listed as invasive in Portugal, Réunion, and the United States (NIISS, 2012;USDA-NRCS, 2012).

Has Cabi datasheet ID
109621
Hosts

P. urvillei often acts as an invasive agricultural weed (Randall, 2012). It is also a host of the rice stink bug Oebalus pugnax (Naresh and Smith, 1984), the Mexican rice borer Eoreuma loftini (Bezeulin et al, 2011), and the crop pathogenic bacterium Acidovorax avenae (Saddler, 1984);and it shows allelopathic activity (exudates) that can impact crop systems (Ishimine et al., 1987). Crops affected in one or more ways include rice Oryza sativa (Naresh and Smith, 1984;Bezeulin et al, 2011), sugarcane Saccharum (Bezeulin et al, 2011), maize (Zea mays), the fodder grass Hemarthria altissima (Newman and Sollenberger, 2005), Strelitzia nicolai, Sorghum spp., oats (Avena), millet, pineapples (González-Ibáñez, 1987), apples (Losso and Ducroquet, 1983) and citrus (Phillips & Tucker, 1974). P. urvillei is also an invasive weed of disturbed sites, footpaths, parks, gardens, turf, roadsides, waste areas, wetlands, watercourses (i.e. riparian habitats), open woodlands, closed forests and pastures as well as affecting the abovementioned crops (Queensland Government, 2012;Randall, 2012;Askew, 2012;Weakley, 2011;Quattrocchi, 2006;Motooka et al., 2003).

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