2GreenMost South African gardens end up choosing between these two, and people search it both ways round, which tells you it is a decision that gets stuck. It does not need to. One question settles it, and it is not the one most people start with.
The one question
Does the lawn have to carry traffic?
If people, dogs or children actually cross it, lay kikuyu, and solve the shade some other way. If it is a shaded lawn that is looked at more than walked on, lay LM Berea. Everything below is detail on top of that.
People usually start with shade instead, and shade is where LM Berea wins outright. The trouble is that shaded lawns are often exactly the ones with a path worn through them, and LM Berea is the worse grass for that by some distance.
Head to head
| LM Berea | Kikuyu | |
|---|---|---|
| Botanical name | Dactyloctenium australe | Cenchrus clandestinus, still widely sold as Pennisetum clandestinum |
| Shade | Best of the common lawns | Wants six hours of direct sun, thins below it |
| Traffic | Poor, and slow to repair | High, and repairs fastest of the common lawns |
| Drought | Fair, with shallow roots | High, browns off and comes back |
| Frost | Sensitive | Browns off, cold tolerance rated low, but recovers |
| Spreads by | Surface runners only, no rhizomes | Surface runners and underground rhizomes |
| Mowing | High, 50 to 70mm, will not take close mowing | Frequent, and it builds thatch |
| Invades beds | No | Yes, and vigorously |
| When to lay in Paarl | Spring, September to November | Autumn, March to early May, is cheapest on water |
Why the traffic gap is so wide
It comes down to one botanical fact. Flora of Australia records LM Berea as stoloniferous with rhizomes absent: it runs on the surface and has nothing underground. Kikuyu has both surface stolons and rhizomes running 25 to 100mm down.
So when a patch of kikuyu is worn out, there is still living plant under the soil to push new growth up. When a patch of LM Berea is worn out, there is nothing left. A standard turfgrass textbook, Christians, Patton and Law, describes LM Berea as intolerant of traffic and slow to recover from injury, and that is the mechanism behind it.
Where each one actually goes
- ✓Open, sunny, used: kikuyu. This is most Val de Vie and Pearl Valley gardens, and most new estate stands.
- ✓Under mature oaks, lightly used: LM Berea. This is Paarl Central, Courtrai and Klein Parys, and the shaded side of a Stellenbosch garden.
- ✓Shaded and walked on: neither is happy. Put in a path or stepping stones and lay LM Berea around them, or accept a worn line.
- ✓Deep shade all day: no grass. That is where artificial grass or a groundcover earns its place.
You can lay both
There is no rule that a garden has one grass. We regularly lay kikuyu on the open half and LM Berea under the trees, with a bed or a path on the join so the two never fight. Kikuyu will invade LM Berea given an open edge, so the join has to be a real one.
Cost
LM Berea costs meaningfully more than kikuyu as instant lawn, commonly around double, and it is worth knowing that before you price a whole garden in it. It is also slower to establish, so the first season needs more patience and more water.
That gap is a good reason not to default to LM Berea across a garden just because one corner is shaded. Lay it where the shade actually is.
The timing catch
These two want opposite ends of the Cape year, which surprises people who assume one delivery can cover both.
Kikuyu does best laid in autumn here, March to early May, so the winter rain establishes it rather than your irrigation. LM Berea is frost sensitive and slow in the cold, so it wants spring, September to November, and a full warm season before it meets winter.
If you are laying both in one garden, that is either two visits or a compromise, and the compromise is usually to lay both in early autumn and accept that the LM Berea will sit still until spring. Our instant lawn service plans that around your garden, and the instant lawn calculator works out the areas.
For the full picture on each, see kikuyu and LM Berea, or compare every option including buffalo and artificial in our lawn grass guide.
Frequently asked questions
Which is better, LM grass or kikuyu?＋
Neither is better in general, and the deciding question is traffic. If the lawn is walked on by people, children or dogs, lay kikuyu: it is rated high for wear and repairs fastest because it has underground rhizomes. If the lawn is shaded and lightly used, lay LM Berea, which has the best shade tolerance of the common lawns but is rated poor for traffic and slow to recover.
Can I mix LM Berea and kikuyu in one garden?＋
Yes, and we often do, with kikuyu on the open half and LM Berea under the trees. The join has to be a real edge, a bed or a path, because kikuyu will invade LM Berea through an open boundary. Kikuyu spreads by rhizomes as well as runners, so a chopped edge will not hold it.
Is LM grass more expensive than kikuyu?＋
Yes, commonly around double as instant lawn, and it is slower to establish as well. That is a good reason to lay it only where the shade actually is, rather than defaulting a whole garden to it because one corner is dark.
Does LM Berea or kikuyu use less water?＋
Kikuyu. University of California IPM rates kikuyu high for drought tolerance, while Roll On Lawn in Cape Town rates LM Berea only fair and notes a very shallow root system. The confusion comes from kikuyu browning off under drought, which looks like failure but is how it survives. LM Berea stays greener for longer and then struggles.
Which grass is better under trees?＋
LM Berea, clearly. It has the best shade tolerance of the common South African lawns, and kikuyu needs at least six hours of direct sun a day, so it thins and goes patchy under a canopy. In very deep shade even LM Berea gives up, and at that point artificial grass or a shade-tolerant groundcover is the honest answer.