Busey, P. 2003. St. Augustinegrass, Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze. pp. 309-330 in: Casler, M. D., and Duncan, R. R. (eds.) Biology, breeding, and genetics of turfgrasses. John Wiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, NJ

See also: Key to St. Augustinegrass cultivars

Introduction

St. Augustinegrass, Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze, is widely used as a lawn and pasture grass in warm, subtropical, and tropical climate regions (Sauer, 1972; Judd, 1975). Other common names are "buffalo grass" in Australia and the Republic of South Africa, "Charleston" in some areas of the southeastern U.S., and "San Augustin" in Latin America. St. Augustinegrass is well adapted to humid areas and where irrigation is provided. The world's first known record of planting St. Augustinegrass was on 11 November 1880, as a turf alongside an avenue at A. M. Reed's Mulberry Grove plantation, at Yukon, near Orange Park, Florida (Works Progress Administration, 1939), and is based only on a fragmentary reference to cultural practices, "George planting St. Augustine grass in avenue in afternoon." The species is expanding rapidly as a lawn grass, especially due to human migration to warm coastal regions. As an example, St. Augustinegrass turfgrass sod harvested in Florida was 3,100 hectares in 1974 (Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, 1976) compared with 13,400 hectares in 1991 (Hodges et al., 1994). By 2001, St. Augustinegrass was the primary turf grown in Florida (pop. 15 million) and St. Augustinegrass was grown on approximately 70% of the lawns (Busey, 2001, unpublished data).