Couch Grass

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Scientific Name:	Cynodon dactylon	Couch Grass Ex Matters & Bozon
Other Common Name:	Swamp Couch, Common Couch
Status:	Widespread throughout Australia and around the world. Some authorities regard it as being indigenous to Australia but it may have been an early introduction.
Plant Description:	A tough creeping or erect mat-forming A tough creeping or erect mat-forming perennial grass with stolons (runners/horizontal stems) and rhizomes (underground stems). The leaves are hairless or minutely hairy, narrow and taper to a point. Flower-heads are like the spokes of an umbrella or windmill, with up to 6 spikes radiating from the end of the flower stalk. The spikes are usually straight but they are sometimes slightly curved. The spikelets are overlapping, and arise in 2 rows on the underside of the spikes, are up to 2 mm long and have one floret each. Flowering in summer and autumn.
Further Details:	There are several species with similar flowerheads. For example Windmill Grass (chloris truncata). Swamp Couch grass tends to be much more spread out and has smaller flowerheads, wtih no bristles, whereas Windmill Grass tends to occur as individual tufted plants and has slightly larger flowerheads with more spikes and bristles on the spikes.
Habitat:	Wide range of soils from sand to heavy clays.
Comments:	Prefers moist sites such as stream sides, roadside drains and plains which are occasionally flooded. It is also able to tolerate dry sites and forms dense mats in favourable conditions. It is tolerant of slightly to moderately saline soils but more common in slightly saline soils. There are several grasses with similar windmill-like flower-heads. Curly Windmill-grass (Enteropogon acicularis) and Windmill-grass (Chloris truncata) tend to occur as individual tufted plants and do not (or hardly) spread by stolons or rhizomes. Couch Grass has smaller flower-heads with fewer spikes and unawned florets, compared to the windmill grasses. See Comments under Australian Salt-grass (Distichlis distichophylla) for leaf differences between this species and other similar creeping grasses.

Couch Grass Photo: A J Brown	Couch Grass Photo: A J Brown	Couch Grass Photo: A J Brown
Couch Grass - seedhead Photo: A J Brown

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