Study On Shade-Tolerance Of Cool-Season Turfgrass

In order to choose suitable turf-grass cultivar in shade area and give turf frill l)Iay in garden construction and city greening. the shade- tolerance of turf-grass was studied. 5 cultivars of perennial ryegrass (Pickwick), Kentucky bluegrass (Merit), rough bluegrass (Dasas), creeping bentgrass (Providence) and red fescue (Shadeway) were chosen to measure 7 indices, including seedling emergence and turf establishment, growth rate of aboveground, light compensation point, tillers number, chloropliyl I content and chlorophyll a/b ratio, moisture content of leaves and specific leaf weight under natural light and shade of 600/o. respectively In additioii. comprehensi\ C evaluation was done each month according to overall performance and quality of each plot turf-grass. The results showed: I Comparing with natural light condition, turf-grass grew under shade of 60% condition emerged quickly and uniformly and grew rapidly in vertical direction, but tillers number reduced significantly. Therefore, turf-grass grew under shade condition established turf more slowly than one grew under natural light condition. 2. Under shade condition, specific leaf weight of all turf-grass reduced. but moisture content increased significantly except red fescue, light compensation point of 5 turf-grass reduced in some degree, chlorophyll content increased significantly except perennial ryegrass and creeping bentgrass, but only rough bluegrass and red fescue's chlorophyll a/b ratio reduced significantly. 3. According to the analysis of 7 indices, the results showed that red fescue and rough bluegrass had strong tolerance to shade, Kentucky bluegrass had medium shade-tolerance, perennial ryegrass and creeping bentgrass had poor shade-tolerance. 4. The shade-tolerance order of 5 turf-grass derived from the analysis of comprehensive evaluation vas consistent with the result of measuring 7 indices, which illustrated that it was reasonable to measure above 7 indices.