# Vasey Grass

*Paspalum urvillei*

This grass was named in honor of the French explorer and botanist Jules Dumont d'Urville, who collected plants during his 19th-century voyages.

- **Taxonomy:** Plantae › Tracheophyta › Liliopsida › Poales › Poaceae › Paspalum
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** increasing
- **Biome:** grassland
- **Habitat:** Moist disturbed areas, roadsides, ditches, pastures, and riverbanks.
- **Diet:** Photosynthetic (sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, and soil minerals)
- **Range:** South America, Southern United States, Australia, South Africa, Southern Asia
- **Size:** 1.0 to 2.5 meters tall, forming dense tufts.
- **Lifespan:** Perennial (5 to 10 years via regenerating root crowns)
- **Active:** diurnal
- **Threats:** Intensive herbicide application and urban development, though it is highly adaptable and often considered a weed.
- **Safe to approach?:** Vasey Grass is entirely harmless to humans. It can be safely approached and touched. However, like many grasses, its wind-blown pollen can trigger seasonal allergies (hay fever) in sensitive individuals, and the coarse leaves may cause mild skin itching upon direct contact.

## About

Paspalum urvillei is a species of grass known by the common name Vasey's grass , or Vaseygrass . It is native to South America, and it is known in parts of North America as an introduced species. It is a noxious weed where it has been introduced in Hawaii and New Caledonia. It grows well in disturbed habitat, often in moist areas. This is a rhizomatous perennial grass which may reach 2 meters tall. The leaves are up...

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/1990d1bc-5fa7-4872-a773-efdd8aa02cfd
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/78356
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paspalum urvillei
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/90187598/medium.jpeg (葉子, CC0, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.