Grass Terminology
Learn the meaning of grass-related lingo.
Warm vs. Cool Season Grasses
Cool-season grasses turn green and look their best during the cooler months of spring and fall. They go dormant (turn brown) during the hotter months: June, July, August and early September. Homeowners and landscapers water them during hotter months to keep them from turning brown.
In contrast, warm-season grasses turn green in late spring when the soil warms up. They look their best during the hottest months of the year. These grasses will go dormant again with the first hard frost of the fall. Warm-season grasses need less irrigation (once per week compared to three times per week during the height of summer). They don’t require any winter watering or irrigation in early spring or late fall.
Bunch Type vs. Spreading Grasses
After a seed of a bundgchgrass germinates, it slowly expands its diameter each year. Even as mature plants, bunchgrasses’ growth habit is a clump, which can lead to bare soil between plants. Bunch grasses are less traffic-tolerant because they don’t spread into bare soil. Also, it’s important to seed them at the right rate to create a dense stand. Bunchgrasses can work well with forbs or wildflowers without taking over. Examples of these grasses are blue grama, side-oats grama, and fescues.
Spreading or sod-forming grasses spread into bare soil by sending out rhizomes or stolons to reproduce horizontally through the area. These grasses fill in well and tend to be more traffic-tolerant than bunchgrasses. Spreading grasses are too aggressive to mix with forbs and wildflowers, but are great for stabilizing slopes and creating a solid stand of grass. Examples of these grasses are bluegrass, western wheatgrass, and buffalograss.