Types of Lawn Grass

"Turf grass" and "Lawn and turf grasses" both redirect to here. There are thousands of varieties of lawn grass, each adapted to specific conditions of precipitation, temperature, and sun/shade tolerance. Breeders are constantly creating new and improved varieties of the base list of lawn grass species. The two basic categories are cool season grasses and warm season grasses.

Cool season grasses start growth at 5 °C, and grows at their fastest rate when temperatures are between 10-25 °C (Huxley 1992), in climates that have relatively mild/cool summers, with two periods of rapid growth in the spring and autumn. They retain their color well in extreme cold and typically grow very dense, carpet-like lawns with relatively little thatch.

• bluegrass
• bentgrass
• ryegrasses
• fescues

Warm season grasses only start growth at temperatures above 10 °C, and grow fastest when temperatures are between 25 °C and 35 °C, with one long growth period over the spring and summer (Huxley 1992). They often go dormant in cooler months, turning shades of tan or brown. Many warm season grasses are quite drought tolerant, and can handle very high summer temperatures, although temperatures below -15 °C can kill most warm season grasses.

• Zoysiagrass
• Bermudagrass
• St. Augustine Grass
• bahiagrass
• centipedegrass
• carpetgrass
• buffalograss
• Grama grass