World Grass Guide
Japanese, cool-season, warm-season — pick by climate and sun, with care notes for each.
Bahiagrass
Deep-rooted and content on poor, dry soil. Cheap to establish from seed, but it throws seed heads readily, so it looks unkempt if left uncut. Suited to slopes and low-input greening.
Bermudagrass
Grows fast and heals fast — the reason it dominates warm-climate sports turf. It has almost no shade tolerance, and that same speed means it gets scruffy quickly if you skip a cut.
Centipedegrass
Slow-growing and near-indifferent to fertiliser — its selling point is simply how little it asks for. Good where you want to mow rarely. Poor under traffic and in cold.
Hime-korai (fine-leaf Manila grass)
A fine-leaved selection of Korai that knits into a dense, carpet-like turf. The finish is beautiful, but the low mowing height means cutting it more often. Suited to ornamental gardens.
Korai (Manila grass)
The most common lawn grass in Japanese gardens. It shrugs off hot, humid summers and establishes easily from sod. It goes dormant and brown in winter, then greens up again in spring.
Noshiba (Japanese lawngrass)
The native zoysia found on riverbanks, parks and embankments across Japan. The blade is coarse, but it takes heavy traffic and cold well and asks for very little care — the default choice for greening a large area cheaply.
Oba-korai (broad-leaf Manila grass)
A broader-bladed Korai selection chosen for toughness over fineness. A good fit for public green space, or any garden where durability matters more than a manicured look.
St. Augustinegrass
Broad-bladed and spreading by stolons, and unusually shade-tolerant for a warm-season grass. A staple of residential lawns across the US South. Weak under traffic, and not cold-hardy.
Tifton (hybrid bermudagrass)
A hybrid of two bermudagrass species, selected for fine, dense turf and used on football pitches and stadiums. It sets no viable seed, so it is propagated from sod or plugs.
TM9 (low-maintenance Korai)
A Korai cultivar selected for slow vertical growth. It looks like ordinary Korai but needs far fewer cuts through the season — aimed at households that want less mowing.