Centipedegrass [Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro) Hack.] is an important warm‐season turfgrass which can be established by seed. Germination of seed for progeny evaluation in the shortest time would be of value in a breeding program with this grass. Therefore, freshly harvested, open‐pollinated seed was used to study the effects of different temperature regimes and scarification treatments on percent and speed of germination.Alternating temperatures of 35‐15 C with respective light‐dark periods of 12 hours each gave the highest percentage and fastest germination. Mechanical scarification greatly improved both parameters.