If you work with warm-season grasses, you will want to have a look at this new paper by Reasor et al. on the variability of hybrid bermudagrasses used on putting greens.

Ever see anything like this? Off-types growing in a green? Wondered if the off-types are contamination by a completely different grass, or if the grass has mutated?

This paper explains what can happen, what has happened, and why. Plus it has a historical review of these hybrid bermudagrasses used on greens. Find out where they came from and how the grasses are related.

Sometimes I write about papers that are behind a paywall and most people can't read (or at least don't want to pay the high fees to purchase). I'm glad there won't be that problem with this article, as Reasor et al. have published this open access so everyone can read it.

I've just spent a couple weeks with the lead author Eric Reasor (pictured at right in Japan) collecting data from bermudagrass putting greens in Asia.

He's been doing a lot of interesting research about ultradwarf bermudagrass, off-types within those grasses, and the management of putting greens to minimize problems with off-types. Watch out for more interesting research from him on this topic.