Track 1-06: Improving Efficiency of Production of Amenity and Conservation Turfgrass
Description
Water deficit is one of the most important factors to restrict growth of turf grass, especially in northwest China where water available for landscape irrigation is increasingly limited. Use of drought-tolerant turfgrass species or cultivars is one of the strategies used to reduce water utilization and irrigation requirement (Nielsen and Stewart 1990). Recent study showed that regionally adapted native grass species are worth investigating as suitable alternatives to the conventional turfgrasses in many applications (Mark et al. 2011), and several native grass species are suitable for low-maintenance turfgrass use has also been reported (Mintenko et al. 2002). Awnless cleistogenes (Cleistogenes songorica) is a drought tolerance perennial grass native to the northwest desert grasslands of China. It grows well with a mean annual rainfall of 100 to 200 mm and is tolerant to the winter temperatures as low as -40oC. A series of studies related to the domestication of this species have been reported by the writers including seed germination ecology (Yu et al. 2004), seedling establishment techniques (Tai et al. 2008) and seed production (Wei 2010). This paper reports the performance of C. songorica as a turf use grass under drought conditions.
Included in
Evaluation of a Drought Tolerance Native Grass: Cleistogenes songorica for the Turf Use Purpose
Water deficit is one of the most important factors to restrict growth of turf grass, especially in northwest China where water available for landscape irrigation is increasingly limited. Use of drought-tolerant turfgrass species or cultivars is one of the strategies used to reduce water utilization and irrigation requirement (Nielsen and Stewart 1990). Recent study showed that regionally adapted native grass species are worth investigating as suitable alternatives to the conventional turfgrasses in many applications (Mark et al. 2011), and several native grass species are suitable for low-maintenance turfgrass use has also been reported (Mintenko et al. 2002). Awnless cleistogenes (Cleistogenes songorica) is a drought tolerance perennial grass native to the northwest desert grasslands of China. It grows well with a mean annual rainfall of 100 to 200 mm and is tolerant to the winter temperatures as low as -40oC. A series of studies related to the domestication of this species have been reported by the writers including seed germination ecology (Yu et al. 2004), seedling establishment techniques (Tai et al. 2008) and seed production (Wei 2010). This paper reports the performance of C. songorica as a turf use grass under drought conditions.
