International Journal of Horticulture, 2017, Vol.7, No.11, 82-94
82
Review Article Open Access
Lawn Grasses-A Review
L.C. De
ICAR-NRC for Orchids, Pakyong, Sikkim
Corresponding email
International Journal of Horticulture, 2017, Vol.7, No.11 doi
Received: 05 Apr., 2017
Accepted: 08 Apr., 2017
Published: 31 May, 2017
Copyright ©2017
De, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
De L.C., 2017, Lawn grasses-a review, International Journal of Horticulture, 7(11): 82-94 (doi
Abstract
Lawn is the heart of the garden and the centre for social life. These are considered as an essential component of private
gardens, public landscapes and parks in various parts of the world. Lawn is the best foreground to enjoy the charm and beauty of the
ornamental plants and features. They are developed for aesthetic pleasure, as well as for sports or other outdoor recreational purpose.
Based on climatic requirements, they are classified into two categories, viz. cool season and summer season grasses. In the review,
description, varieties, importance and uses of Alkali grass (
Puccinella distans
), Annual Blue Grass (
Poa annua
), Canada blue grass
(
Poa compressa
), Colonial Bentgrass (
Agrotis capillaris
), Creeping Bentgrass, (
Agrotis stolonifera
), Fine Fescues, Kentucky Blue
Grass (
Poa pratensis
), Perennial Rye Grass (
Lolium perenne),
Rough Blue Grass (
Poa trivialis
), Velvet bentgrass (
Agrotis canina
)
and Wheatgrass (
Agropyron spp
) and warm season grasses namely Bahia grass (
Paspalum notatum
), Bermuda grass (
Cynodon
dactylon
), Blue Grama (
Bouteloua gracilis
), Buffalo grass (
Buchloe dactyloides
), Carpet grass (
Axonopus affinis),
Centipede grass
(
Eremochloa phiuroides
), Kikuyu grass (
Pennisetum clandestinum
),
Salt grass (
Distichlis spicata
) and
Zoysia grass (
Zoysia
spp.) are
discussed in details.
Keywords
Lawn; Cool season; Warm season; Grasses
1 Introduction
It is a natural green carpet and is the carpeted floor of outdoor room. It leads to unity in garden design. It is the
heart of the garden and the centre for social life (Jenkins, 1994). Lawns are considered as an essential component
of private gardens, public landscapes and parks in different parts of the world. Lawn is the best foreground to
enjoy the charm and beauty of the ornamental plants and features. They are developed for aesthetic pleasure, as
well as for sports or other outdoor recreational purpose (Beard and Green,1994). Lawns are utilized as a playing
surface both because they control erosion and dust generated by huge foot traffic and because they are used as a
cushion for players in sports such as rugby, football, soccer, cricket, baseball, golf, tennis, hockey and lawn bocce
(Reynolds and Flint, 2009). The lawn has become a central element in landscapes. Turfgrass culture, is a
multi-billion dollar industry in the world (Wong and Harivandi, 2009).
Although lawns are made up of grasses alone, other plants like sedges, low herbs, wild flowers and ground covers
are also used. For creating a lawn mainly cool season grasses, warm season grasses and grass alternatives are used
(Harivandi et al., 2001).
Grasses: Coarse grasses are used for play grounds whereas fine grasses are useful in ornamental lawns for visual
impacts (Randhawaya and Mukhopadhyay, 2001).
Cool season grasses
: Cool season grasses thrive at a temperature between 10
o
C and 25
o
C and they retain their
colour in extreme cold. eg., blue grass (
Poa
spp.), bent grass (
Agrostis
spp.), rye grass (
Lolium
spp.), fescues
(
Festuca
spp., hybrids), red fescues (
Festuca rubra
), feather reed grass (
Calamogrostis
spp.), tufted hair garss
(
Deschampsia
spp.) (De, 2012).
Warm season grasses
: These types of grasses grow well at a temperature between 25
o
C and 35
o
C. e.g, zoysia grass
(
Zoysia
spp.), Bermuda grass (
Cynodon
spp.), St. Augustine grass, Bahia Grass (
Paspalum
spp.), centipede grass
(
Eremachloa
), carpet grass (
Axonopus
), buffalo grass, grama grass (De, 2013).
