COVER STORY
ORIGINS
OF TURFGRASS
By Jay McCurdy Ph.D., Associate Professor, Turfgrass Extension Specialist
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Department of Plant & Soil Sciences
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Mississippi State University
This is the first article of a multi-part series detailing the origins and future of turfgrass.
urf consists of a layer of various plants cultivated to form a uniform ground cover, typically one that can tolerate foot traffic and routine mowing. The first known use of the word turf occurs before the 12th century and refers to the “upper stratum of soil bound by grass” (Merriam-Webster, 2022). Objectively, turf only exists in human-maintained systems; however, the species comprising various turf scenarios long predate human interference. Those turfgrass species most frequently selected for turf scenarios have been subject to environmental pressures (notably, frequent grazing) that have selected for traits that enhance their value as turfgrasses. Valuable traits include color, texture, uniformity, growth habit, and durability under stress. Plant breeding, the introduction of non-native and exotic species, and recurrent selection for desirable traits have led to modern cultivars and varieties of turfgrass that predominate in maintained turf settings such as lawns, sports fields, golf courses, sod farms, and roadside rights-of-way.
FIGURE 1. Turfgrasses, such as the Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass) and perennial ryegrass pictured here, evolved under frequent grazing.
10 • MISSISSIPPI TURFGRASS • FALL 2022
Turfgrasses are typically narrow-leaved species of relatively short stature that are somewhat regularly mown at heights of approximately four inches or less (Thompson and Kao-Kniffin, 2017). By convention, all grasses, including turfgrasses, belong to the Poaceae family of monocotyledonous flowering plants. The monocotyledonous (monocot) clade includes grasses and grass-like flowering plants with seeds that contain only one embryonic leaf (also known as a “cotyledon”). Monocots offer few obvious advantages for turf applications, as other flowering plants in the dicotyledonous clade (having two embryonic leaves) also persist under typical mowing heights as weeds or amenity forbs within various turf scenarios.
FIGURE 2. A traditional hay meadow where human interaction has selected for a complex ecosystem of grasses and forbs that can persist with very few inputs.
