Scientific Name
Agrostis stolonifera L. (Synonyms: Agrostis alba)
Common Name(s)
Creeping bentgrass, redtop bentgrass
Tribe / Family Name
Poeae
Flowering Period
June to September
Symbol
AGST2
Description
Creeping bentgrass is an introduced cool-season perennial stoloniferous or rhizomatous grass that reproduces from stolons, rhizomes, and seeds. Culms usually range from 15–60 cm in height. Its inflorescence is a narrowly contracted, dense to slightly open panicle usually 4–20 cm long with whorled branches at each node (especially lower ones). Spikelets are usually purplish, 1-flowered, and usually unawned. Ligules are usually 1.5–5 mm long, membranous, acute or rounded, and erose to lacerate.
General Info
Creeping bentgrass can be found along roadsides and streambanks, in wet meadows, pastures, lawns, low grounds, marshes, forest openings, foothills, plains, and montane sites.
Similar Species
Creeping bentgrass can be confused with redtop (Agrostis gigantea). To differentiate the two, compare their heights and inflorescences. The height of creeping bentgrass can be up to 60 cm tall with a narrowly contracted, dense to slightly open panicle inflorescence that is up to 20 cm long, while the height of redtop can be up to 150 cm tall with an open panicle inflorescence that is up to 30 cm long.
Picture of growth habit.
Inflorescence is a narrowly contracted, dense to slightly open panicle.
Close-up picture of spikelet.
Close-up picture of membranous ligule.
Illustration of creeping bentgrass. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. <i>An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols</i>. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Vol. 1: 203.