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Paspalum dilatatum; photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-23

Paspalum dilatatum Poir.

Dallis-grass; Caterpillar grass; Water grass; Bastard Millet Grass

Poaceae · Bolivia, Brazil Southeast +5

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Paspalum dilatatum, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Paspalum dilatatum, photograph (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Paspalum dilatatum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPaspalum dilatatum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPaspalum dilatatum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPaspalum dilatatum, photograph (c) Louis Aureglia, some rights reserved (CC BY) 79 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-0.5°C
Record low -3.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,212mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
14–46DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Paspalum dilatatum is a species of grass known by the common name dallisgrass, Dallas grass, or sticky heads. It is native to Brazil and Argentina, but it is known throughout the world as an introduced species and at times a common weed. Its rapid growth and spreading rhizomes make it an invasive pest in some areas. It is present in the southern half of North America, southern Europe, much of Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and many tropical and subtropical areas.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (899 mm of 1,229 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 12.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to November.

Rain

1,229 mm in the median year at the habitat, 899 mm of it October to May. Wettest month February at 125 mm, driest month August at 72 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,009 mm to 1,418 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,212 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,229 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 46 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -0.5 °C, the absolute minimum -3.7 °C, 246 frost nights in 44 years, 5.6 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 7.5 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 6.2 °C to 8.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.1 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.5 °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: 58 to 63% 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 -70 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Paspalum dilatatum through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 7.5 °C; 1,229 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, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost35.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-3.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 14–46RH 58–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 18 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 °C28 / 27–3027 / 26–2926 / 24–2722 / 21–2319 / 17–1916 / 14–1716 / 13–1618 / 15–1919 / 17–2121 / 20–2424 / 22–2727 / 25–29
Night °C19 / 18–2119 / 18–2017 / 16–1914 / 13–1511 / 10–128 / 7–98 / 6–88 / 7–910 / 8–1112 / 11–1415 / 13–1617 / 16–19
Rain mm107 / 89–124125 / 93–147115 / 98–135114 / 94–145116 / 55–13695 / 30–12075 / 27–12272 / 30–11388 / 55–119106 / 93–125112 / 94–126104 / 87–126
DLI45 / 43–4739 / 36–4032 / 30–3323 / 22–2417 / 17–1914 / 14–1616 / 15–1821 / 20–2427 / 26–3136 / 33–3743 / 40–4446 / 44–47
RH %58 / 56–5960 / 58–6161 / 59–6161 / 60–6262 / 60–6363 / 62–6463 / 60–6462 / 57–6361 / 56–6261 / 56–6159 / 55–6058 / 56–59
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 18 grid cells holding the 18 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 2462:2516 (-33.125, -54.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.2 °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 18 distinct grid cells holding 18 of the 18 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2462:2516 (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 -33.00_-54.375, lapse-corrected -70 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 75 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.
NativeBolivia, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay · introduced: Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Greece, Italy, Krym, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Benin, Ghana, Niger, Cameroon, Congo, Zaïre, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Ascension, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, East Himalaya, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Vietnam, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Norfolk Is., Tasmania, Chatham Is., Kermadec Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Fiji, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Easter Is., Marquesas, Marianas, Hawaii, Colorado, Oregon, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Indiana, New Jersey, West Virginia, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile Central, Tristan da Cunha · 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 marker-31.043, -54.651 · in the densest population, 14 records (37% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 38 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 18 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 21 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 653 km away. 994 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 20 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 2° block of the 38 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 dilatatum, photograph 1did not loadPaspalum dilatatum, photograph 2did not loadPaspalum dilatatum, photograph 3did not loadPaspalum dilatatum, photograph 4did not loadPaspalum dilatatum, photograph 5did not loadPaspalum dilatatum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) fmunoz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Louis Aureglia, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Eryngium horridum Eryngium horridum Apiaceae Photo: CC BY, Gastón RepettoXylosma tweediana Xylosma tweediana Salicaceae Photo: CC BY, Gastón RepettoSoliva sessilis Soliva sessilis Onehunga-weed Photo: CC BY, Pluto HooperPaspalum notatum Paspalum notatum Bahia grass Photo: CC BY, 祐Verbena montevidensis Verbena montevidensis Uruguayan vervain Photo: CC BY, Rocío Esmeralda PoseNothoscordum montevidense Nothoscordum montevidense Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Gastón Repetto

Other Paspalum 15 in the reference

Paspalum conjugatum Paspalum conjugatum Hilo grass Photo: CC0, author not statedPaspalum 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 dilatata; Panicum platense; Paspalum dilatatum f. paucispica; Paspalum dilatatum subsp. decumbens; Paspalum dilatatum subsp. dilatatum and 17 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
Poir.
Native to
Bolivia, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South +4
Wild records
38 in range · 21 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; 20 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (11 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 6 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 -33.00_-54.375, lapse-corrected -70 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 208 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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