There are four major genera of cool-season grasses used as turf and two less commonly used genera. For each genus the species are listed by scientific name followed by the English common name in parentheses. The scientific name of plants is almost always a binomial with two parts, a generic name which is always capitalized followed by a specific epithet which is never capitalized, governed by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Italicization of scientific names is purely a typographic convention to indicate the non-English nature of the name, and is not required. English common names of true grasses (species of Poaceae), when combined with the group name “grass,” are written in a compound word without a hyphen (Kartesz and Thieret, 1991). Common names are capitalized only when derived from proper nouns such as surnames and place names, and canonizations. The genera and their species are:
Agrostis spp. (bentgrasses): Agrostis canina (velvet bentgrass), Agrostis capillaris (colonial bentgrass), Agrostis castellana (highland bentgrass), Agrostis gigantea (redtop), Agrostis stolonifera (creeping bentgrass)
Festuca spp. (fescues): Festuca ovina (sheep fescue), Festuca trachyphylla (hard fescue), Chewing’s fescue, Festuca rubra subsp. commutata (Chewing’s fescue), Festuca rubra subsp. rubra (red fescue)
Lolium spp.: Lolium arundinaceum (syn. Festuca arundinacea, tall fescue), Lolium multiflorum (annual ryegrass), Lolium perenne (perennial ryegrass)
Poa spp. (bluegrasses): Poa annua (annual bluegrass), Poa arachnifera (Texas bluegrass), Poa compressa (Canadian bluegrass), Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass), Poa supina (supina bluegrass), Poa trivialis (roughstalk bluegrass)
Additionally, there are two other cool-season grasses in other genera, Puccinellia distans (alkaligrass) and Agropyron cristatum (crested wheatgrass), which are occasionally used as turf.
Because of photorespiration in warm temperature, no cool-season turfgrass performs well in subtropical conditions except for temporary use, such as perennial ryegrass used for overseeding high traffic sports fields in the winter only.
The Don Man – posted 18 April 2005 10:13 I put Kentucky blue grass sod in August of last year, I was just told it needs lime put on it to help it get off to a good start this…
bob in iowa – posted 03 July 2001 21:22 I have been told that I have a mixture of fine fescue and kentucky blue grass in my yard, recently and over the past several years since we have lived at…
usf – posted 11 May 2003 18:46 I have a fescue lawn which has recently been getting many pale green areas. The blotches of pale yellow continue to enlarge and it’s taken over about 1/10 of the lawn. I was…
Olduffer – posted 08 December 2001 22:40 In the 1940’s my parents planted a lawn of Merion Bluegrass in Central North Dakota. It was a great lawn. I live in Eastern Washington State, and happened on to a bag of…
Uribe – posted 29 August 2005 21:10 Dear Freinds,I Just put 3,300 sq feet of new fescue sod. I was told that I need to water it a lot for the next 6 weeks. I’m currently watering 825 sq feet…
Rebecca – posted 18 May 2005 09:53 Hello everyone! I found this forum while doing some research, trying to decide whether or not to purchase some Canadagreen grass seed. After reading that thread, I decided NOT to try it. But…
JP – posted 12 September 2005 10:14 I live in northern Utah. I am not sure what kind of grass we have, they said it is a mixture of seven kinds. It is purchased at any sod farm, Home Depot,…
Inoz – posted 17 May 2001 20:04 I just read an ad for Canada Green Grass. Sounds too good to be true. Supposedly it is drought resistant, stays green all year round even under snow, does not need fertilizer, etc.…