# Grass ID help



## jpos34 (Aug 31, 2019)

Is this centipede or a wide blade zoysia?


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## ionicatoms (Mar 8, 2020)

Holy moly. Doesn't look like centipede to me, but it's in such bad shape, I guess I could be wrong. With centipede I always pull a stolon and check for alternating shoots.

Looks like it's been drowned nearly to death.


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## jpos34 (Aug 31, 2019)

ionicatoms said:


> Holy moly. Doesn't look like centipede to me, but it's in such bad shape, I guess I could be wrong. With centipede I always pull a stolon and check for alternating shoots.
> 
> Looks like it's been drowned nearly to death.


It has rained a lot but what makes it look in bad shape? Is it because it's in dormancy stage?


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## ionicatoms (Mar 8, 2020)

All those dead tips suggest (to me) the presence of a nutritional malfunction; I only ever see this condition when my yard has been wet for extended periods and a fungus hijacks the roots/stolons, resulting in that black appearance. Doesn't look dormant to me, looks like cell death.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

It looks like semi-dormant centipede to me. You can pull a stolon to confirm like @ionicatoms said. I think the reason it looks so bad is because all the dormant (dead) material is starting to break down. If it looked like that in June or July I'd be concerned, but not January in Birmingham.


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## ionicatoms (Mar 8, 2020)

Redtwin said:


> I think the reason it looks so bad is because all the dormant (dead) material is starting to break down.


I guess it's been too long since I saw centipede transition into dormancy. I was expecting a lot more white/ash.

@Jacob_S posted a picture of dormant centipede awhile back that looked a bit different to me. Here's the post for reference: https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=128223#p128223


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## jpos34 (Aug 31, 2019)

@Redtwin @ionicatoms I had someone tell me it could be "Carpetgrass". I had never heard of that before. They said it looked like centipede but certain herbicides could kill that wouldn't effect centipede. Has anyone ever heard of carpetgrass and if so how can you tel the difference between it and centipede?


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Definitely not the stuff that I call carpetgrass. I thought carpetgrass had a little waviness to it's leaves and didn't spread via stolons.


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## ionicatoms (Mar 8, 2020)

Redtwin said:


> Definitely not the stuff that I call carpetgrass. I thought carpetgrass had a little waviness to it's leaves


Agreed, there's no carpetgrass in those photos.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

Looks like centipede to me. Also looks like there is a ton of fungal activity going on there. Have you had a frost yet?


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