How to Identify Types of Turf Grass

Being able to identify different varieties of turf grass is important in the proper maintenance of your lawn. Each turf has different characteristics and requires different methods of care. If you know the type of lawn you have, and the proper watering, fertilizing and mowing techniques required, your lawn has a better chance of survival and longer lasting quality. Bermuda grass, buffalo grass, colonial bent grass and creeping bent grass are only a few of the different types of turf available.

Things You'll Need

• Garden shovel Gloves

Instructions

1. 

   Look for coarse and shiny lime green turf in annual rye grass. This turf grows upright, in a bunch, and has shallow roots. The leaves are rolled up in the bud, and long, thin claw-like auricles are present. The auricle is like the front part of the collar on a shirt and is found on the leaf sheath where the blade begins to grow up and out.

2. 

   Observe the coarse, light green, kikuyu grass. This turf presents folded leaves, hairy ligules and the absense of auricles. The leaf sheaths are flattened, and the leaf blades are tapered. Kikuyu grass has rhizomes and aggressive stolons. The ligule grows out from the top of the sheath like a collar only about 1/16 of an inch. The rhizomes are the root system growing under the ground. Stolons are underground stems. Plants that do not reproduce by seeds, reproduce by stolons. They run horizontally across the ground and root to form new growth.

3. 

   Notice the 1/16-inch thin blade and dark green color of the red fescue turf. There are no auricles, and the leaves fold in the bud. The ligule is short and membranous. The turf has short rhizomes, is a bunch grass and grows upright. This grass spreads very slowly.

4. 

   Identify seashore turf by its coarse blades and dense roots. The leaves are folded in the bud, it has no auricles, the ligule is short and membranous, and it grows fast by its rhizomes. The color is a light to medium green.

5. 

   Don't be alarmed when zoysia grass turns brown in the winter. It lies dormant in the cold, but will change again to a dark green grass during growing season. This turf has a stiff, short, pointed and thin blade. It is dense, medium textured, and the ligule is hairy. The leaf is rolled in the bud and there are no auricles.

Tips & Warnings

• Different parts of the turf grass are looked at for identification. These include; the auricles, ligules, leaf blades, rhizomes, stolons, sheath and the new leaves. In order to see some of the parts of the grass discussed in this article you will need to get down into the grass with a microscope.

• If you are growing new turf, make sure to find out what type of turf you are planting. It is important to follow all growing instructions per the type of turf you have. Some turf requires shade, some sun. Others need fertilizer and some do not. In order for your turf grass to grow properly, you must know the proper way to maintain it.