The leaves of Paspalum dilatatum are mostly basal, the leaf blades and leaf sheaths usually hairless, apart from a few long hairs around the collar. The narrow leaf blades, slightly folded near the base, become about 25 cm long and 1,3 cm wide. The ligule next to the culm is membranous, bluntly triangular and up to 6 mm long.

The species was one of the early grasses to be cultivated as a perennial fodder crop, deliberately introduced in many parts of the world, where it then also often invaded (Van Oudtshoorn, et al, 1991; www.tropicalforages.info).