If you’ve ever watched your St. Augustine grass creep across a sidewalk or spotted your Bermuda lawn filling in a bare spot almost overnight, you’ve witnessed two of Florida’s most fascinating turf survival strategies at work. Stolons and rhizomes are the underground (and above-ground) engines that drive how warm-season grasses spread, recover, and compete — and understanding the difference between them can completely change how you manage your lawn.
What Is a Stolon?
A stolon (sometimes called a “runner”) is a horizontal stem that grows above the soil surface, creeping outward from the parent plant. As a stolon extends, it produces nodes at intervals — and from those nodes, new shoots and roots emerge, anchoring the grass in a new spot and starting a new plant. Think of it like the grass is “reaching out” across the ground to claim new territory.
Stolons are visible to the naked eye. That stringy, stem-like growth you sometimes see on the surface of a St. Augustine lawn after mowing? That’s stoloniferous spread in action.
What Is a Rhizome?
A rhizome is also a horizontal stem — but it travels below the soil surface. Like stolons, rhizomes grow outward from the parent plant and produce new shoots and roots at nodes. The key difference is that this activity is happening underground, out of sight. Grasses with rhizomes tend to form a dense, interwoven mat beneath the soil, which gives them exceptional stability, drought recovery, and wear tolerance.
Florida Turfgrasses: Who Has What?
Most Florida warm-season grasses spread by one or both of these methods. Here’s how the common players break down:
| Grass Type | Stolons | Rhizomes |
|---|---|---|
| St. Augustine (Stenotaphrum secundatum) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Zoysiagrass (Zoysia spp.) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum) | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Centipedegrass (Eremochloa ophiuroides) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Carpetgrass (Axonopus spp.) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
St. Augustine Grass — Stolons Only
St. Augustine is Florida’s most popular lawn grass, and it spreads entirely through stolons. Its runners can be thick and coarse, visible on the soil surface, and they’re what give plugs and sod their ability to establish quickly. Because St. Augustine has no rhizomes, its root system doesn’t penetrate as deeply or form as dense a subsurface mat — making it more vulnerable to severe drought and mechanical damage. A badly scalped St. Augustine lawn has fewer “reserves” underground to draw from compared to a Bermuda lawn in the same situation.
Bermudagrass — Stolons and Rhizomes
Bermuda is the overachiever of the turfgrass world. Its dual spreading system — stolons above ground and rhizomes below — makes it extraordinarily aggressive and nearly impossible to fully eradicate once established. This is great news for high-traffic lawns and athletic fields, and not-so-great news if Bermuda invades a garden bed. The dense rhizome network means Bermuda can regenerate from deep in the soil even after significant surface disturbance.
Zoysiagrass — Stolons and Rhizomes
Zoysia also spreads both ways, but at a much slower pace than Bermuda. Its stolons and rhizomes together create a tight, dense turf that is highly resistant to weeds once established — it essentially outcompetes them through sheer density. The tradeoff is patience: a Zoysia lawn can take two or more growing seasons to fully fill in from plugs.
Bahiagrass — Rhizomes Only
Bahia is a workhorse grass common in pastures, roadsides, and low-maintenance Florida lawns. It spreads through rhizomes alone — no stolons — and this underground spread gives it excellent drought tolerance and the ability to hold soil on slopes and disturbed areas. Bahia won’t fill in a bare spot as quickly as a stolon-spreader, but its deep rhizome system makes it extremely resilient once established.
Centipedegrass — Stolons Only
Like St. Augustine, centipede spreads via stolons. It’s a slow-growing, low-maintenance option that gradually creeps outward from the parent plant. Because its spread is surface-only, centipede is less tolerant of heavy traffic and hard freezes than rhizomatous grasses — the “bank account” of stored energy and growing points underground simply isn’t there the same way.
What Does This Mean for Lawn Maintenance?
Understanding whether your grass spreads by stolons, rhizomes, or both has real, practical implications for how you care for it.
Mowing and Scalping
Grasses with rhizomes — like Bermuda and Zoysia — tend to handle aggressive mowing and even seasonal scalping much better than stolon-only grasses. Their underground nodes serve as recovery points when top growth is removed. St. Augustine, with no rhizomes, should never be scalped; removing too much of the stolon and leaf canopy at once can set it back severely or cause die-out in weakened areas.
Edging and Containment
Stolon-spreading grasses like St. Augustine are relatively easy to contain with regular edging — cut the runner, and spread stops. Rhizomatous grasses are a different story. Bermuda, in particular, can send rhizomes under edging, curbing, and even shallow root barriers. If you’re battling Bermuda invasion into garden beds, you need either a deep physical barrier (4–6 inches) or a dedicated herbicide program.
Bare Spot Recovery
A grass that spreads both above and below ground will fill in bare spots faster and from more directions. Bermuda, for this reason, is often used on athletic fields and golf courses where rapid recovery from wear and divots is critical. St. Augustine will fill in bare spots through stolon spread, but the runners need to creep across the surface — so coverage can be slower, especially in areas with foot traffic disrupting those runners.
Thatch Management
Both stolons and rhizomes contribute to thatch — the layer of living and dead organic matter that builds up between the soil and grass blades. Grasses with both spreading systems (Bermuda, Zoysia) tend to build thatch faster and benefit most from periodic dethatching or vertical mowing. St. Augustine’s stolons also contribute to thatch, but its typically higher mowing height keeps the buildup less compressed.
Renovation and Removal
If you’re ever renovating a lawn or switching grass types, knowing your grass’s spread system is essential. Stolon-only grasses like St. Augustine and centipede can often be killed and removed without worrying about deep regrowth — once the surface tissue dies, the spread stops. Rhizomatous grasses like Bermuda are a completely different challenge: rhizomes can persist in the soil for extended periods, and any fragment left behind can regenerate. Thorough herbicide treatment (often multiple applications) and/or solarization is usually required for a clean-slate renovation.
The Bottom Line
Stolons and rhizomes are more than botanical trivia — they’re the architectural blueprint of how your lawn grows, recovers, and competes. In Florida’s climate, where grasses grow aggressively for much of the year, understanding these systems helps you work with your grass rather than against it. Whether you’re managing a fine-bladed Zoysia that slowly creeps underground or wrestling with a Bermuda lawn that seems to have its own agenda, it all starts with knowing what’s happening beneath (and just above) your feet.