Cool-season grasses: Biology and breeding

In the United States, cool-season turfgrass breeding and cultivar development can trace its earliest beginnings to the late 1800s within the USDA Division of Agrostology. At that time, identifying grasses that formed turf was the greatest need of the division and so "grass gardens" of different species were established and maintained as turf to determine which species, for example, Kentucky bluegrass or barnyardgrass, made the best turf. This chapter includes a short summary of annual ryegrass breeding efforts. It focuses on the major breeding achievements that have been made in seed yield, disease resistance, and stress tolerance over the last 40 years and some new traits that have recently been emphasized in breeding programs, including cold and salt tolerance. Evaluating germplasms and breeding lines using wear simulators may be a promising approach for enhancing the wear tolerance of fine fescues.