Colonial Bentgrass

Colonial Bentgrass is native to Europe but has been introduced for turfgrass use throughout

the cool humid climates of the world and has become naturalized in New Zealand, the Pacific Northwest

and the New England regions of North America. It is one of the two most utilized Agrostis species.

Vernation	rolled
Sheaths	round, glaborous, split with overlapping, hyaline margins
Ligule	membranous, 0.4 - 1.2mm long, truncate
Collar	conspicuous, narrow to medium broad, may be divided, glaborous, light green
Auricles	absent
Blades	flat, 1 - 3mm wide, moderately scabrous above and on margins, prominant veins above accuminate apex
Stems	erect, slender, tufted, with stolons or rhizomes absent to weak and short.

Colonial Bentgrass (Agrostis tenuis) forms and upright, fine textured dense turf under close mowing. The stems and leaves are delicate, fine in texture, and rather low growing with lower internodes being quite short. The low growth habit results in good tolerance to close mowing. Segregation into off-type clones is likely to occur as the turf matures because of the heterogeneity of certain colonial bentgrass cultivars. Thus, the overall uniformaity and turfgrass quality frequently declines.

The colour ranges from a greenish-yellow to a mdeium dark green. The root system is fibrous, relatively shallow, and annual in nature.

The creeping tendency is minimal since the rhizome and stolon growth of colonial bentgrass is either lacking or quite short.

Colonial Bentgrass is propagated by seed.

Agrostis tenuis is cross-polinated with a reported chromosome number of 28.

The establishment rate is fairly good but the recuperative potential is fair to poor.

Turfgrass Science & Culture, James B. Beard