Bahia grass types
1946
Burton, G.W.
Bahia grass, Paspalum notatum, is not a native of the United States. The strains that have been discovered in the United States to date may be grouped into six types. These types differ greatly in leaf size and shape, rate of spread, earliness, seed and forage production, floret size and shape, fertility, frost resistance, winter survival, sod density, and palatability. Twenty somatic chromosomes were found in the root tips of Pensacola Bahia. All other Bahia types studied had 40 chromosomes as the 2n number. Common Bahia has been intentionally introduced by man from many different parts of the tropical portion of the Western Hemisphere. The limited distribution of the other types around south-eastern seaports suggests that they were introduced by chance in the ballast and packing of early seaborne cargos. In this study the Texas strains seemed identical with an introduction from Paraguay, Pensacola Bahia resembled an Argentina introduction very closely, and Tapa Bahia appeared to be very similar to numerous herbarium specimens from the West Indies. These observations suggest that these three United States types came from Paraguay, Argentina, and the West Indies.
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