Family: Poaceae

Status: pasture grass

Description:
A mat-forming grass, spreading by underground runners (rhizomes). Rhizomes are thick and usually white, at least on new growth. Leaves are bright green, folded in bud and flat and about 1cm wide when mature. Kikuyu seldom flowers or seeds, but flowers are concealed except for very frail thread-like white structures (the pollen bearing parts).

Preferred habitat and impacts:
Grows in pasture where it is a valuable fodder source for cattle particularly. Some farmers love it and some hate it. Being of tropical origin it browns off in winter, leaving a big gap in the fodder supply.
Unfortunately also able to invade remnant grassy native vegetation in farming areas, in paddocks or on roadsides, where it can suppress native groundcover species. It doesn’t like deep shade, so does not advance very far into forests, but forest edges or narrow belts of trees on roadsides suit it fine. It does better with a reasonable supply of moisture, but will persist in dry sites too.
Kikuyu is a blight in gardens and tree plantings, where it climbs up through and smothers shrubs and young trees. The long runners can pass under concrete paths and sprout from the tops of the walls of abandoned buildings.

Dispersal:
Seed is rarely produced (but can be bought for its weight in gold). Usual means of spread is by broken runners. Even small fragments, such as are found in lawn clippings, will take root. People assist its spread by slashing on roadsides, by collecting manure from dairies for the garden, by using clippings as mulch, and by dumping material from the garden into bush.
It is often deliberately planted to stabilise bare ground after excavation work.

Look-alikes:
Buffalo grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum) is a similar creeping grass which is equally invasive. It does flower regularly, with the seeds held flat against a broad compressed stem in a short spike.
One native grass does look a little like kikuyu until it seeds. This is hillside burr grass (Cenchrus caliculatus). It forms loose scrambling clumps rather than spreading by runners, but the stems and leaves are similar to kikuyu. However, the very spiky black burrs about 5mm across and held in narrow spikes at the tips of the branches are distinctive. It mostly grows on north-facing hillsides, often among rocks.

Control:
The best way to keep kikuyu out is to avoid introducing it in the first place. Use oats, millet or some similar temporary cover crop to stabilise bare ground until the native vegetation that was there originally can re-colonise the site. Avoid collecting manure or mulching materials from sites where it occurs. If you notice it becoming established, remove it quickly, before it has a chance to spread.
Kikuyu can be dug out, but this can be very laborious, unless it is growing under a thick mulch. In this case the runners grow along the surface, and are easy to pull up. It is very easy to kill with non-selective herbicide, or some grass-specific herbicides can be used to remove it from among native grasses, with minimal damage to the natives.