Kurapia has worked well in covering highway and freeway shoulders, rooftops, public utility areas, commercial properties, and solar farm landscapes. Not much is known about how it performs in a desert climate. Is it ready to replace a lawn? There is a lot of mixed information out there regarding Kurapia and how successful its been in replacing lawn grasses.
Below are some pictures of it growing in southern Nevada and Valley Sod’s email to me regarding their trials with it in Sandy Valley, Nevada.
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| Kurapia can be mowed to remove the flowers so from a distance it looks more like grass. |
It is not a total replacement for functional turfgrass like sports fields. Remember that visual replacement for lawn grasses does not infer tolerance to wear and play. How much “wear” your lawn receives should be considered when replacing it with a groundcover of any type.
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| Valley Sods picture of Kurapia grown in Southern Nevada. |
We at Valley Sod started investigating Kurapia about two years ago and planted an acre of the material at our farm in Sandy Valley. During this time, we have learned how the plant grows and responds to different temperatures and soil conditions.
The plants were exposed to temperatures as low as 18 F to 116 degrees F at the farm. The plants did not go dormant (or turn brown) within any of those extremes. In fact, it prefers the heat over the cold and has an active growing season from March till the end of October. It does handle some shade. In full sun it has a very small leaf whereby in shade the leaf is larger. Kurapia can be mowed, occasionally if wished, to remove the flowers to make it appear more like a turfgrass rather than a (flowering) ground cover.
Valley Sod became a licensed grower of Kurapia two years ago. We foresee Kurapia as a great replacement for natural turf because of its drought tolerance and preference for sub-surface irrigation.
If this kind of turfgrass replacement interests you contact [email protected]
My little mom grew this groundcover (Lippia nodiflora, also known as Lippia repens) in the 1960-70's on the median between the sidewalk and street. Tough plant, that can take too much rain, too little rain, and some foot traffic. Cute, tiny little flowers that make adorable fairy bouquets. Those are the pros. On the con side, it is invasive (just search on +Lippia +invasive) and the flowers draw bees like crazy — which most would find an unwanted characteristic in a lawn. Personally, I love the plant, love the bees. However, be aware that containing it will be an issue in some environments and it will need to be mowed frequently if bees are a concern. Frankly, I'm torn as to whether its resurging popularity is a good thing? Would love your input on this. (Thanks for your blog, I enjoy how clear and informative you are).
Please have Mike describe the subsurface irrigation and report the actual volume of water that has been applied per year, compared to measured evapotranspiration. In the absence of measurable data, I must conclude that references to drought tolerance are more hyperbolic that scientific. If they are going to open the subject, they should back their claims clearly. Extremo probably has other questions.
I don't know. You have more information about using this plant than I have. Thanks for reading!
Experience with Kurapia. That's why I opened it up for Mike to talk about it and to be discussed here. Personally, we're in the Mojave desert and I like open spaces.
I called valley sod to ask about it. They have a ton of studies backing it up that they were able to provide on hand. Probably just too much info to put in a single email explanation for an article like this. Their website had decent info, and when I requested it, they had loads.
Hello great info! I'm in Northern Nevada so good to know it can take those extremes. Considering replacing my lawn. One question, my lawn is currently sick with fungus. If I put in Kurapia instead with that also get sick?
Kurapia is so new there is not much information on it. The original water use information was done by the University of California. My guess is that there would be fewer disease problems. Few diseases transfer from lawn grasses to non grasses.