Rhodes grass

General information

Rhodes grass (Chloris gayana) is a perennial or annual grass from south and east Africa.

Rhodes grass is not a declared plant under Queensland legislation, however its control is recommended.

Scientific name	Chloris gayana
Impacts	rapidly invades rainforest fringes smothers native ground cover species
Description	60-160 cm tall leaf blades are flat or folded 12.5-45 cm long and 1-2 cm wide inflorescences have 6-15 one-sided spikes, clustered at end of stem spikes are 5-10 cm with numerous green spikelets, turning to copper-brown when mature
Habitat and distribution	spreads by rhizomes, rooting stolons and seeds grown in tropical countries as a pasture species a known weed of environmental areas in South East Queensland
Control	manual control requires digging out of larger clumps with a mattock or similar tool susceptible to several herbicides see the Rhodes grass fact sheet for more information
Declaration details	not a declared plant under Queensland legislation but may be declared under local government law
Further information	local government weed control/environmental staff Rhodes grass fact sheet (PDF, 170 kB)