turf quality characteristics of crested wheatgrass (agropyron cristatum(l.) gaertner.) specimens native to iran

Crested wheatgrass (agropyron cristatum (l.) gaertner.) is a potentialsource of low-maintenance turf species for use in areas with less water. themain goal of this study was to evaluate turf quality characteristics of 24crested wheatgrass specimens collected from different locations of iran aslow-maintenance turfgrass. the experimental design was a randomizedcomplete block design with 3 replications. the results showed significantvariation among specimens for turf quality and turf quality components andthere were 15 specimens with an average turf quality rating of 6.0 or higher,indicating adequate quality performance. mowing quality were higher than 6for all specimens and ranging from 6.30 (210 m) to 7.28 (4049). habitats ofsamples varied in performance for all traits and different geographical regionsmay offer germplasm with high turf quality performance. there were significantpositive correlation between turf quality and mowing quality (r = 71**) andalso turf quality and tillering (r = 57**). based on the results of clusteranalysis, the specimens were assigned to 3 clusters and the single specimenfrom cluster 2 had the highest ratings for turf quality (7.95), mowing quality(7.28), color (7.27) and leaf texture (7.10). these results indicated that crestedwheatgrass specimens native to iran could be an important resource for use aslow-maintenance turfgrass.