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Poaceae family

Stargrass Cynodon plectostachyus

Stargrass is an introduced perennial grass, found in the lower 48 states.

More about this plant

Cynodon plectostachyus, the giant star grass, is a species of grass. It is native to Chad, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, and has been introduced as a livestock forage to California and Florida in the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Paraguay, Argentina, Nepal, and Bangladesh. An aggressive competitor, it is now the most widespread grass in the New World Tropics. It is typically paired in a silvopastoral system with Leucaena leucocephala. Wikipedia →

⚠ Invasive here — plant a native instead USDA + GBIF

Stargrass is flagged invasive in the U.S. These natives fill a similar niche — same growth habit, bloom season, height, and region — so you keep the look and feed local wildlife instead of spreading a problem.

Shasta Red Fir (var. shastensis)
Native
Shasta Red Fir (var. shastensis)
Abies magnifica var. shastensis
●●●●○
Halfmoon Milkvetch
Native
Halfmoon Milkvetch
Astragalus wootonii
●●●●○
Catclaw Acacia
Native
Catclaw Acacia
Senegalia greggii
●●●●○
Daly River Satinash
Native
Daly River Satinash
Syzygium nervosum
●●●●○
Matched on growth habit · bloom months · mature height · shared U.S. range (USDA + GBIF) — a starting point, not a prescription.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 11 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Foliage
Lifespan
Perennial
Foliage
Broadleaf
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~12 caterpillar species

Cynodon supports ~12 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a moderate genus for introduced plants — native genera typically support far more.

Recorded feeding on Cynodon in North America, including:

Agrotis ipsilon · Dark Sword-Grass Atalopedes campestris · Sachem Automeris io · giant silk moth Automeris patagoniensis · giant silk moth Copaeodes aurantiaca · Orange Skipperling Copaeodes minimus · skipper butterfly
+ 8 more species →
Cyllopsis gemma · Gemmed Satyr Cyllopsis pertepida · Canyonland Satyr Hemileuca hualapai · Hualapai Buckmoth Hermeuptychia hermes · brush-footed butterfly Hermeuptychia sosybius · Carolina Satyr Hylephila phyleus · Fiery Skipper Lerodea eufala · Eufala Skipper Leucania latiuscula · owlet moth
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
How we know this (1) Methods & honest limits
Leaf build Direct fact

We read each species’ measured specific leaf area (leaf area per unit dry weight) from the Global Spectrum dataset and band it: thin & fast (high SLA), medium, or thick & tough (low SLA). The global median is about 10 mm²/mg.

Honest limits: A species-mean from pooled measurements — individual plants vary with light and site. A broad strategy signal, not a precise per-plant figure.

Díaz, S. et al. (2022) The global spectrum of plant form and function: enhanced species-level trait dataset. Scientific Data 9:755.
Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →
Sources for this entry (15) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[07] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[08] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[10] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)
[11] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[13] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[14] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
[15] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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