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Leersia hexandra
Also called Rice Grass, Southern Cut Grass, Cutgrass, Swamp Ricegrass, Native Rice Grass, Rasp Grass, Swamp Cut Grass
Southern cutgrass is a creeping perennial grass of wet and shallow-water habitats, with razor-sharp leaf edges. It is grown mainly as a pasture or forage grass on swampy land and is a common weed of rice fields.
Leersia hexandra is a species of grass known by the common names southern cutgrass, clubhead cutgrass, and swamp rice grass. It has a pantropical distribution. It is also an introduced species in many regions, sometimes becoming invasive, and it is an agricultural weed of various crops, especially rice. It is also cultivated as a forage for livestock.
This plant grows in shallow freshwater habitat and on wet and moist land. It can be found in marshes, swamps, ponds, irrigation ditches, flooded rice fields, and on other moist agricultural land and floodplains. It is mostly tropical, but it can grow in some temperate climates. It can persist for a time in drier conditions during drought.
Despite its sharp leaf edges, the grass is palatable to cattle and it is maintained as a pasture grass on swampy land and cut for hay.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Leersia hexandra by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
