Dwarf Broad Leaf Carpet Grass

Broad leaved carpet grass is a very common turf in tropical Australia, especially in the near all-year round wet zones along the NE coast eg near Cairns or Ingham.

Also sometimes used around Darwin, it is a very shade tolerant turf, and will handle wet, silty soils, provided adequate water is supplied in the dry season.  No irrigaton and it will die out in our region.

But it does grow rapidly, and leaves are quite long, and they can be very susceptible to insect damage, especially army worms, who enjoy the lush growth.

Curiously, there are no cultivars developed - just carpet grass.

However, recently it seems a dwarf variety may have been developed, in of all places, Singapore.

https://florafaunaweb.nparks.gov.sg/Special-Pages/plant-detail.aspx?id=1712#

There is a lot of information and some photos, but no variety name - except they call it Pearl Grass.  It is propagated vegetatively, and has featuered on a green roof project as well as some median strips, where obviously low maintenance is important.

While zoysia is common on golf courses and that is very low growing, and can thrive in both low light and low maintenance conditions, it can be slow to establish from sprigs.

I need to know more about this variety......so more to come.

Green Roof and Walls

The Elmich Effect -   The Largest Greenwall in the World!! .

 

Officially the World’s Largest Greenwall Project - Singapore ITE Headquarters & College Central                                                        Hats off, to our colleagues at Elmich Singapore, who have just completed the largest greenwall installation, in the world.  Standing at 35m tall and totaling 5,300 m2, Elmich VGM Green Wall modules transformed the campus walls, both internal and external, into facades of living green vegetation, in-line with the college’s Eco-Initiative to create an environment conducive to learning. The highly engineered Elmich VGM architectural living wall system uses UV-stabilised plastic modules and stainless steel support brackets and pilasters that enable easy mounting and dismounting of VGMs during installation and maintenance. Topped off with 2400m2 of Extensive Greenroof 2,400 sq m of roof space, over three campus blocks, was 'Greened' using the Elmich Extensive Greenroof system. VersiDrain 25P® drainage and water retention trays were placed directly over the waterproofing and overlaid with a geotextile and a lightweight engineered growing media. Pearl Grass was selected for its heat tolerance and low maintenance and an automated pop-up irrigation system was installed to ensure abundant growth, maximising the benefits of this greenroof.

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While this is actually part of advertising by Elmich, it does show the fantastic green wall and roof developed for this new building complex  in Singapore.

Even more interesting is the new type of grass used for the roof.

Pearl grass [ their term] is actually a dwarf variety of broad leaved carpet grass [ Axonopus compressus] , with broad leaved carpet grass common as a turf in tropical Australia.

Does it have a place in tropical Australia?  I would think it might.