Palmetto is considered as the reigning king of buffalo grasses in Australia by all turf experts, breeders and reviewers alike as the best quality buffalo in the country.

Palmetto performs very well for the most important aspects of buffalo turf quality, which therefore provides us with its high reputation for performance, leading it to be the best selling buffalo grass in the world today.

The only time someone could possibly tell us otherwise, is if they are trying to sell us a different brand of buffalo grass, and so therefore they have a very big profit motive to try and tell us (sell us) something different. But be assured, that the experts know the truth… and we've even had a couple of competing breeders admit this very fact to us.

So let's take a brief look and overview of another of Australia's favourite buffalo lawn types. The following information is based on independent buffalo grass research sponsored by all buffalo grass license holders in Australia.

Best Traits

The reason Palmetto rates so highly is because it consistently performs best in all the most important aspects of buffalo grass quality, as we'll now see.

Palmetto has very high drought tolerance and recovery, far exceeding many of its competitors by very large margins.

Palmetto buffalo has the lowest thatch levels of any buffalo grass, whether grown in full sun where buffalo can be expected to thatch the most, or under partial shaded conditions.

Palmetto seeds the least of buffalo grasses in full sun or partial shade. Buffalo seeding can be of concern to some lawn owners due to the thick stalks which come from buffalo grass seeding.

Palmetto holds the best colour in winter, when other lesser buffalo grasses such as Shademaster may turn brown or even purple.

Palmetto is a slower growing buffalo grass, which will require less lawn mowing and maintenance than most other buffalo types.

Good Traits

Palmetto didn't do the best in buffalo shade trials. However as Palmetto is still a buffalo grass, it still has very high shade tolerance compared to other lawn types, so for this reason we've still kept the shade tolerance ratings for Palmetto in the "Good Traits" column.

Worst Traits

We couldn't find any worst traits for Palmetto when compared to its peers. Other than the shade tolerance we already mentioned - and we have also explained why we don't consider this to be a bad trait.

Unique Characteristics

Palmetto doesn't seem to have any really unique characteristics which are different enough from other buffalo grasses to provide further information here. Unlike Sapphire which has a fine leaf and blue hue, or Matilda which is a dwarf buffalo.

The leaf blade of Palmetto is of standard width compared to other buffalo grasses, wider than Sapphire, but not as wide as Sir Walter.

History Of Palmetto Buffalo Grass

Palmetto was intensively bred in the United States as one of the early high quality soft leaf buffalo grasses developed. Its continuing endurance is due to the quality bred into this grass in the beginning, which so many newer buffalo grasses still cannot seem to catch up to.

Palmetto - The Perfect Buffalo?

Sadly, I have seen some grass sales websites which claim their version of buffalo grass is best for everyone, best for every situation, best for every environment, and on and on and on… Don't believe it.

There is no such thing as a perfect grass, whether it be buffalo or any other grass type.

Therefore we could not possibly claim that Palmetto is the perfect buffalo grass.

We therefore urge everyone considering buying a new buffalo lawn to do good research to determine the best buffalo grass for their needs. In most cases we do believe this would most often be Palmetto, but when the buyer honestly compares the quality ratings for each buffalo grass on this website - they may indeed find that a different mix of strengths of a different buffalo grass may suit their needs better.

Palmetto - Recommendations

Based on independent buffalo grass research studies, we consider Palmetto to be a premium soft buffalo grass, equal amongst it peers for quality, and with its own unique strengths.

Palmetto Buffalo is therefore recommended for consideration when choosing a new buffalo lawn.

Is Palmetto The Best Lawn For My Home

When considering any new buffalo lawn, we recommend reading our Ultimate Buffalo Grass Review, as well as our accompanying Buffalo Grass Quality Ratings to discover the true quality ratings of the more popular buffalo grasses being sold in Australia today, in comparison to each other.