Calculators / Lawn and turf
What kind of grass do you have?
Pull up a whole shoot and look closely. Answer what you can see, skip what you can’t, and add your zone if you know it. You’ll get the grasses and weeds that match, ranked.
Updated · How we check our numbers
What to look at
The newest leaf, cut across
The ligule, where blade meets stem
The tip
Most likely
Kentucky bluegrass
Every answer you gave fits Kentucky bluegrass, and nothing else fits as well.
- Answers that fit
- 6 of 6
- Kind
- Lawn grass
Estimate for planning only, not professional advice. Check the manufacturer’s instructions, your local code and a licensed professional before you buy, build or install. Use at your own risk. Terms.
Is Kentucky bluegrass right for your climate?Cool-season, zones 3 to 7. See how it compares with other grasses where you live.
Ranked by your answers
6 answered- Kentucky bluegrass6 of 6 answers fitBest match
- Annual bluegrass, Poa annua (weed)5 of 6 answers fit, 1 doesn’tUnlikely
- Perennial ryegrass3 of 6 answers fit, 3 don’tUnlikely
- Fine fescue3 of 6 answers fit, 3 don’tUnlikely
- Yellow nutsedge (a sedge, not a grass)1 of 3 answers fit, 2 don’tUnlikely
- Quackgrass (weed)2 of 5 answers fit, 3 don’tUnlikely
- Tall fescue2 of 6 answers fit, 4 don’tUnlikely
- Bermudagrass2 of 6 answers fit, 4 don’tUnlikely
Traits from NC State TurfFiles, K-State and University of Minnesota extension pages.
Boat-shaped tip with “two distinct, clear lines, one on each side of the midrib.”
Pull a whole shoot. The ligule is the little collar where the blade meets the stem: a thin membrane, a fringe of hairs, or both. Folded means the newest leaf comes out creased in half; rolled means it’s curled like a scroll. Roll the stem in your fingers; if it has three flat sides, it’s a sedge.
How we work it out
This is the same key turf scientists use, from NC State TurfFiles' identification tables. Three features do most of the work, and you'll want a whole shoot, not just a blade:
The newest leaf. Where it comes out of the stem, it's either folded in half (Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass, bermuda, St. Augustine) or rolled like a scroll (tall fescue, zoysia, crabgrass). Folded versus rolled is how you tell bermuda from zoysia, and ryegrass from tall fescue.
The ligule. Pull the blade gently back from the stem. At the joint there's a thin membrane, a fringe of hairs, or a short membrane with hairs. Bermuda has hairs; nimblewill, a weed that looks just like it, has a membrane.
How it spreads. Runners on top of the soil (stolons), runners under it (rhizomes), both, or clumps with neither. Dig up a small plug to see.
A few plants give themselves away. Kentucky bluegrass has a boat-shaped tip with two clear lines beside the middle vein; so does annual bluegrass, a weed that has no runners and shows light seedheads even when mowed short. Zoysia has hairs on the upper blade and feels stiff. Bahia's seedhead is a Y. A stem with three flat sides is a sedge, not a grass.
Your zone narrows it down: a lawn grass that can't survive there (by NC State Extension's hardiness ranges) drops to the bottom. Weeds aren't filtered. Width ranges are NC State's, with K-State's for tall and fine fescue. Where sources disagree we've gone with NC State. Penn State, for one, calls tall fescue's underside dull where NC State calls it glossy, so we don't ask about gloss.
Where the numbers come from
Your lawn
More calculators
- Which artificial turfWhat artificial turf should I get?
- Artificial turfHow much turf, infill and base do I need?
- Artificial turf costWhat does artificial turf cost?
- Sod and seedHow much sod or seed for my lawn?
- Best grass for your climateWhat grass suits my climate?
- Raised bed soilHow many bags of soil for my raised beds?
- Raised bed plansHow tall and wide, and what boards do I buy?
- Plant spacingHow many plants fill my bed?