Understanding how your Zoysia grows and spreads can help you to maintain and care for your lawn properly.
There are several parts to a zoysia plant. I am going to touch on some of the main parts, the crown, roots, rhizome, stolons, leaf blade and seedhead.
The crown is the main shaft of the plant which is attached to the tap roots. The tap roots can grow up to 2 feet long. The tap root is where the plant absorbs water under ground. Due to the long length of this root it can reach a lot of water that other grasses can not.
The crown also produces Rhizomes, which are roots that are underground about 4-5 inches and grow outward and upward, producing new plants. This is how the grass spreads underground.
From the crown stolons also form and run along the top of the soil. About every inch there is a small cluster, called a node. This node will eventually take a roothold forming a new plant. The stolons are how zoysia grass spreads above ground.
Most importantly, water, sunlight and nutrients are absorbed through the leaf blade and soil. These are past from the leaf blade down to the roots of the plant and then fed to the rest of the plant.
The seedhead usually does not grow if the grass is kept mowed. The seeds that are produced on most zoysia grasses are not used to propagate zoysia. The success rate is very low if at all. Successful zoysia lawns are most often grown from plugs, sprigs or sod.