What grass weed is this in my lawn?

Jonny Hicks 14 Apr 2026

What grass weed is this in my lawn?

Just a quick one on grass ID posts.

As the forum grows, it’d be great to keep the quality of answers high from the start. Photos taken from a distance can be really hard to work with, and it often ends up with people just having to guess.

If you’re posting for ID, try to include a few key parts of the plant, ideally in good lighting.

A close up of the leaf blade, the leaf sheath, and the ligule. The ligule sits where the blade meets the sheath. It can be a thin membrane, a fringe of hairs, or sometimes completely absent, and it’s one of the key features for identifying different grass species.

If the plant has a seed head, include that as well. That’s often the most useful feature for identification, sometimes it can be the only way to get 100% correct ID.

If you can, show the root system too. Loosen the soil around it so it’s easier to see whether it’s clumping or spreading via stolons or rhizomes.

Nodes are also worth showing. These are the joints along the stem or runners and can have useful identifying characteristics.

The more detail you can provide, the easier it is for others to give accurate answers.

I’ll also get things updated so you can add more photos when creating a post. It’s currently limited to 3, but I’ll push that up to around 6 or 7. I’ve added a few examples below of the type of photos that really help.

The PictureThis app is one of the more reliable AI tools for grass ID, but even that needs good input. Without the right photos, it can confidently tell you the wrong thing.

I’m looking at using their API and building something similar directly into this app, so you’ll be able to upload images for identification here as well. Shouldn’t be too far off 👌

What grass weed is this in my lawn? — image 1

What grass weed is this in my lawn? — image 2

What grass weed is this in my lawn? — image 3

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Comments · 2

Jonny Hicks14 Apr 2026

This is a good book if you want to properly geek out.

👍 1

Garry B28 Apr 2026

@Joel Calnan have a look at this post 👍 Grass ID from a photo is genuinely hard, even for us people who do this for a living. Most grasses look nearly identical in a clump shot, especially if they’re not seeding. The features that actually separate species are things like ligule type, whether the sheath is round or flat, how the leaf folds or rolls in the bud, collar shape, auricles. None of that shows up in a photo of a clump someone’s pulled out of their lawn. It’s best search these characteristics and then look at the sample in hand. It’s very likely if your lawn was hydro-seeded it’s a mix of rye, brown top and fine fescue. 99.9% of them are using that blend in NZ. Browntop can be removed with 2 applications of Meso using a sticker but wait for spring before doing that. Space applications by 14 days.

👍 2

Jonny Hicks14 Apr 2026
This is a good book if you want to properly geek out.

👍 1
Garry B28 Apr 2026
@Joel Calnan have a look at this post 👍 Grass ID from a photo is genuinely hard, even for us people who do this for a living. Most grasses look nearly identical in a clump shot, especially if they’re not seeding. The features that actually separate species are things like ligule type, whether the sheath is round or flat, how the leaf folds or rolls in the bud, collar shape, auricles. None of that shows up in a photo of a clump someone’s pulled out of their lawn. It’s best search these characteristics and then look at the sample in hand. It’s very likely if your lawn was hydro-seeded it’s a mix of rye, brown top and fine fescue. 99.9% of them are using that blend in NZ. Browntop can be removed with 2 applications of Meso using a sticker but wait for spring before doing that. Space applications by 14 days.

👍 2