Category: Grasses

Poaceae, the grass family, includes some 12,000 species in 700 genera. Of these, 37 species plus interspecific hybrids, in 18 genera, have suitable growth habit to have been developed as turfgrasses.

The 18 genera of turfgrasses are in 7 of the 28 grass tribes, 4 warm-season tribes, Andropogoneae (Bothriochloa, Eremochloa); Cynodonteae (Bouteloua, Buchloe, Cynodon, and Zoysia); Eragrostideae (Dactyloctenium); Paniceae (Axonopus, Digitaria, Paspalum, Pennisetum, Stenotaphrum) and 3 cool-season tribes, Aveneae (Agrostis); Poeae (Festuca, Lolium, Poa, Puccinellia); and Triceae (Agropyron).

Warm-season turfgrasses such as bermudagrass, Cynodon dactylon, are C4 plant species which are well adapted to hot dry climates by physically separating the initial carbon fixation from carbon dioxide (CO2) in a 4-carbon molecule in mesophyll cells, which diffuses to specialized bundle-sheath cells for sugar production by the Calvin Cycle.

Cool-season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, Poa pratensis and tall fescue, Lolium arundinaceum, are C3 plant species with no physical separation of carbon fixation (in an initial 3-carbon molecule) from the Calvin Cycle that produces sugars. The C4 vs. C3 metabolic distinction is correlated with adaptive differences in other characteristics such as adaptation to warm vs. cool climates and susceptibility to insects and diseases.

Turfgrass breeders use traditional methods of hybridization and progeny selection, transgenesis (GMO), and discovery within natural occurring populations to find improved genotypes of turfgrass with resistance to biotic and environmental stresses and acceptable performance in appearance and play. Thousands of cultivars or trade types have resulted.

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Fescue Help

Tired in Raleigh – posted 23 May 2005 15:34 C3/4 acrean anyone help me? I have been trying VERY hard to establish a nice fescue lawn in Raleigh NC. I am about 20 miles...

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De-thach St. Augustine Lawn

lhb_tx – posted 20 May 2005 12:54 I have a 3 year-old St. Augustine lawn in central TX that has become heavily ladden with runners. I though about attacking the lawn with a de-thaching...

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Bermudagrass quandry

chris 1705 – posted 07 May 2005 09:15 I can’t quite figure out if my front lawn – common bermudagrass – has died or is just slow. All around me, the lawns are green,...

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bermuda damaged badly!

bermudalawn – posted 04 May 2005 13:57 I live in atlanta, i have a small lot about 1/4 acre, and I want to keep it perfect! No matter how much work or fertilizer, etc....

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Sod roots did not take

shammock12 – posted 05 April 2014 15:07 I laid St.Augustine sod last early December – well I had someone else do it. However, I have noticed that the roots never took to the soil....