ABSTRACT
Turf grasses are used in athletic fields, soccer fields, golf courses, cricket fields, and even in parks and home lawns. They are durable, useful, and contribute not only to the esthetic beauty but also to the environment and health of people by abating pollution. Lawn is a natural green-color carpet. It is an important feature of landscape, and a garden without a lawn is not considered complete. Lush green-color lawn provides a great satisfaction 24to owner and becomes a center of the garden for major activities. Lawn provides a place for taking rest after tiring job of the day, for holding parties and social functions, and for passive and active recreation. It harmonies with the surroundings and provides a natural green color. With increased emphasis on recreation and urbanization in the recent past, high-quality turf has gained prime importance. As the use of turf grass is gaining importance for the aforesaid purposes, it has become imperative to incorporate and initiate research on different aspects of this important area. The Divi-sion of Floriculture and Landscaping of IARI (Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India) is maintaining different varieties/species of turf grasses with different landscape use, and they are also evaluated for their morphological characteristics. Presently, we have about 15 turf grass germ-plasm of different characteristics like warm season, shade tolerant, drought tolerant, and variegated leaves and with different patterns of texture.
