Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Paspalum conjugatum; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-15

Paspalum conjugatum P.J.Bergius

Hilo grass; Johnston grass; Sour grass; Sour paspalum

Poaceae · Utah, Texas +46

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Paspalum conjugatum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPaspalum conjugatum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPaspalum conjugatum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPaspalum conjugatum, photograph (c) Nathan Nguyen, some rights reserved (CC BY)Paspalum conjugatum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPaspalum conjugatum, photograph (c) Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY) 64 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
15.1°C
Record low 11.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Apr, May, Jun and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,763mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Paspalum conjugatum, commonly known as carabao grass or hilo grass, is a tropical to subtropical perennial grass. It is originally from the American tropics, but has been naturalized widely in tropical Southeast Asia and Pacific Islands. It has also spread to Northern Africa and Northern Eastern Australia, and New Zealand. It is also known as sour paspalum, T-grass (after the shape of their panicle), or more confusingly, as "buffalo grass" or "sour grass".

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Paspalum conjugatum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,243 mm of 1,660 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.2 °C against a yearly mean of 23.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

1,660 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,243 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 251 mm, driest month February at 57 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,021 mm to 3,196 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,763 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,660 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 15.1 °C, the absolute minimum 11.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.2 °C to 23.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.2 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -74 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Paspalum conjugatum through the yearWarmest months April, May, June and August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 17.4 °C; 1,660 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°40°35.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–40RH 61–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 182 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 20–3026 / 21–3128 / 23–3129 / 24–3329 / 24–3329 / 23–3228 / 23–3229 / 23–3228 / 23–3127 / 22–3026 / 22–2925 / 20–30
Night °C17 / 10–2318 / 11–2319 / 13–2320 / 15–2422 / 16–2522 / 15–2522 / 15–2522 / 15–2522 / 16–2420 / 15–2419 / 13–2318 / 11–23
Rain mm62 / 16–18957 / 15–18958 / 15–21573 / 25–296119 / 58–365236 / 97–392237 / 91–434219 / 90–422251 / 115–463181 / 79–361102 / 25–26565 / 16–220
DLI25 / 22–3430 / 26–3735 / 31–4239 / 29–4440 / 26–4336 / 26–4236 / 27–4236 / 30–4132 / 29–3830 / 27–3527 / 23–3325 / 20–32
RH %64 / 56–6963 / 55–6861 / 55–6762 / 56–6963 / 57–7066 / 61–7166 / 60–7166 / 61–7167 / 62–7166 / 60–7165 / 58–7164 / 58–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 182 grid cells holding the 198 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1415:1525 (19.225, -103.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 182 distinct grid cells holding 198 of the 198 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1415:1525 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.00_-103.750, lapse-corrected -74 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 458 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeUtah, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, C. American Pacific Is., El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay · introduced: Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Cabinda, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Ascension, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Kermadec Is., New Zealand North, Fiji, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Easter Is., Marquesas, Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker19.335, -96.762 · in the densest population, 174 records (25% of those in range)
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 709 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 198 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 635 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 994 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 511 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 709 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Paspalum conjugatum, photograph 1did not loadPaspalum conjugatum, photograph 2did not loadPaspalum conjugatum, photograph 3did not loadPaspalum conjugatum, photograph 4did not loadPaspalum conjugatum, photograph 5did not loadPaspalum conjugatum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Nathan Nguyen, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Heliotropium verdcourtii Heliotropium verdcourtii Heliotropiaceae Photo: CC BY, Scott WardBletia purpurea Bletia purpurea Pinepink Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldTectaria heracleifolia Tectaria heracleifolia Broad halberd fern Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerLithachne pauciflora Lithachne pauciflora Diente de Perro Photo: CC BY, Oscar Israel Rodríguez OrtizChamissoa altissima Chamissoa altissima False chaff flower Photo: CC BY, Rocío Esmeralda PoseCatopsis berteroniana Catopsis berteroniana Powdery strap airplant Photo: CC BY, Tom Field

Other Paspalum 15 in the reference

Paspalum dilatatum Paspalum dilatatum Dallis-grass Photo: CC BY, fmunozPaspalum distichum Paspalum distichum Knotgrass Photo: CC BY, Augustin SoulardPaspalum floridanum Paspalum floridanum Florida paspalum Photo: CC BY, Brandon CorderPaspalum laeve Paspalum laeve Field paspalum Photo: CC BY, Bryan ConnollyPaspalum langei Paspalum langei Rusty-seed paspalum Photo: CC0, author not statedPaspalum notatum Paspalum notatum Bahia grass Photo: CC BY, 祐Paspalum paniculatum Paspalum paniculatum Russell River grass Photo: CC BY, GabrielPaspalum plicatulum Paspalum plicatulum Brown-seed paspalum Photo: CC0, author not statedPaspalum pubiflorum Paspalum pubiflorum Hairy-seed paspalum Photo: CC BY, Chris StahlPaspalum quadrifarium Paspalum quadrifarium Tussock paspalum Photo: CC0, author not stated Paspalum racemosum Peruvian paspalum Paspalum repens Paspalum repens Water paspalum Photo: CC BY, Ryan Sorrells all 16 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Digitaria conjugata; Panicum conjugatum; Paspalum africanum; Paspalum bicrurum; Paspalum ciliatum and 14 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
P.J.Bergius
Native to
Utah, Texas, Alabama +45
Wild records
709 in range · 635 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 41 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (23 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 11 at a herbarium, 7 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.00_-103.750, lapse-corrected -74 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 230 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…