Tee-2-Green: Glossary of Terms



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Annual: A plant starting from seed and completing its life cycle in the same growing season.
Auricle: Hornlike or clawlike appendage projecting from the base of the leafblade or from the sheath apex; occurs in pairs to each side.
Awn: A bristlelike structure, usually extending from (attached to) the glumes of lemma of grasses.

Biennial: A plant starting from seed and requiring two years to complete its life cycle.
Blade: Expanded portion of a leaf; the flat portion of a grass leaf above the sheath.
Blend, seed: A combination of two or more cultivars of a single species.
Bunch type growth: Plant development by intravaginaI tillering at or near the soil surface, without production of rhizomes or stolons.

Caryopsis: Dry, indehiscent fruit in which the single ovule wall is adhered to the pericarp: as seed in grasses.
Coleoptile: A sheathlike structure covering the shoot of grass seedlings.
Cool-season turfgrass: Turfgrass species best adapted to growth during cool, moist periods of the year; commonly having temperature optimums of 15 to 24 degrees C (60 to 75 degrees F).
Creeping growth habit: Extravaginal stem growth at or near the soil surface which results in lateral spreading by rhizomes and/or stolons.
Crown: That portion of the grass plant which includes the stem apex, the unelongated internodes, and the lower nodes from which adventitious root are initiated.
Cutting height: Of a mower, the distance between the plane of travel (base of wheel, roller, or skid) and the parallel plane of cut.

Dethatch: Remove an excessive thatch accumulation either (a) mechanically, as by vertical cutting, or (b) biologically, as by topdressing with soil.

Fluorescence Test: A test conducted on ryegrass seed that indicated the presence of annual ryegrass in perennial seed lots. The roots of annual ryegrass glow on white filter paper under the ultraviolet light.

Hybrid: The progeny resulting from a cross of individuals that differ in one or more heritable characters.

Interseeding: Seeding the same species into an existing turf with a more desirable variety to improve the stand of turf.

Lemma: The bract within a spikelet enclosing the germ side of a floret. A bract above the pair of glumes.
Ligule: A thin, often scarious projection from the summit of the leaf sheath in grasses; may be a membrane, a fringe of hairs, or absent.

Noxious weed: Each state has a list of weeds that are considered noxious in their state. Gener ally these weeds are particularly trouble some in turf. All noxious Weeds present in a seed lot must be shown on the seed label if they are listed as noxious in a particular state.

Palea: The inner bract of a floret; the bract enclosing the crease side of a kernel or the bract opposite the lemma.
Perennial plant: A plant that may or may not start from seed, may or may not produce seed, and requires more than two years to complete its life cycle.
Pregermination: Preconditioning of seed prior to planting by placing it in a moist, oxygenated environment at optimum temperature to favor more rapid germination after seeding.
Putting green: The area of the hole being played that is specially prepared for putting or otherwise defined as such by the committee. A ball is deemed to be on the putting green when any part of it touches the putting green. Putting greens are mowed between .09 to 0.14 thousands inch (3.54 to 8 millimeters), depending on the quality desired.

Rachilla: The main axis of a grass spikelet; the stem of a floret.
Renovation, turf: Improvement usually involving weed control and replanting into existing live and/or dead vegetation; does not encompass reestablishment.
Reseeding, turf: To seed again, usually soon after an initial seeding has failed to achieve satisfactory establishment.
Rhizome: A jointed, underground stem that can produce roots and shoots at each node; may originate from the main stem or from tillers.

Seed: The entire structure developed from the ovule after fertilization; a mature ovule.
Sheath: Basal tubular portion of a leaf surrounding the stem.
Sod strength: The relative ability of sod to resist tearing during harvesting, handling. and transplanting; in research, the mechanical force (newtons) required to tear apart a sod when subjected to a uniformly applied force.
Sodding: Planting turf by laying sod.
Stolon: A jointed, above-ground, creeping stem that can produce roots and shoots at each node and may originate extravaginally from the main stem of tillers.

Texture: In turf, the composite leaf width, taper, and arrangement.
Thatch: An intermingled organic layer of dead and living shoots, stems, and roots that develops between the zone or green vegetation and the soiI surface.
Topdressing: A prepared soil mix added to a turf surface and usually physically worked in by matting, raking. and/or irrigating to smooth a surface.
Transitional climatic zone: The suboptimal zone between the cool and warm climates where both warm - and cool- season grasses can be grown.
Turfgrass color: The composite visual color of a turfgrass community perceived by the human eye.
Turfgrass quality: The degree to which a turf conforms to an agreed standard of uniformity, density, texture, growth habit, smoothness, and color, as judged by subjective visual assessment.
Turfgrass uniformity: The degree to which a turfgrass community is free from variations in color, density, and texture across the surface, as judged by visual assessment.

Warm-season turfgrass: Turfgrass species best adapted to growth during the warmer part of the year; usually dormant during cold weather or injured by it; commonly having temperature optimum of 27 to 35 degrees C (80 to 95 degrees F); e.g., bahiagrass, bermudagrass, St. Augustinegrass, and zoysiagrass.
Winter overseeding: Seeding cool-season turfgrasses onto warm-season turfgrasses at or near their start of winter dormancy; used in mild climates to provide green, growing turf during the winter period when the warm-season species are brown and dormant.