Buffalograss Development Continues Te program’s progress now builds on the work of his predecessors and, Amundsen says, “I owe a considerable thank you to them. Te legacy goes back to Dr. Ed Kinbacher who had collected the initial germplasm. And it continued with the insight, diligence and perseverance of Dr. Terry Riordan and then Dr. Bob Shearman who pursued the development of improved, sustainable buffalograss varieties.”

the UNL super computer, along with several skilled faculty members, which allows us to do our analysis onsite. Because there is so much data, many other programs must send their high throughput sequencing work to outside labs for analysis.”

Approximately 800 square feet of greenhouse bench space is dedicated to the turfgrass program and it’s within the same houses year after year. Germplasm “mother plants” are maintained in gallon containers there, along with the range of experimental research plantings.

At the UNL Turfgrass Research Field Day, Dr. Keenan Amundsen describes the process of introgression breeding, which is used to move specific traits from one buffalograss to another. Photo by Liqi Li

Buffalograss is a warm-season turfgrass species, native to the central Great Plains. Amundsen says, “It has exceptional cold hardiness; natural stands extend as far north as Canada. It is adapted to heat, is drought, disease and insect tolerant, and has good lateral growth with stolons. But common buffalograss has long internodes, is wispy and not very dense or uniform, and has strong winter dormancy, becoming straw-like in appearance at the first hard frost. UNL’s research and breeding program concentrates on counteracting those negatives and has done well in doing so with its variety introductions over the years.”

One of the things that sets buffalograss apart is it is a dioecious species, with separate male and female plants. Te morphology (the form and structure) of the flowers is so dramatically different they originally were classified as two different species. Te female inflorescence is below the surface of the turf canopy, while the male produces a spikelet that extends several inches above the turf canopy. Other than that, there’s no difference in the appearance of the male and female plants.

Amundsen says, “For turf management, the female plants are preferred. If we can identify the female early in the process, it speeds the breeding of preferred plants. We’ve done quite a bit of work trying to understand the genes for gender. We can detect the male and female before the plant reaches maturity, but we haven’t been able to tell if a particular plant will flower profusely. At this point, we have to wait to see the performance in the applied field research to determine that.”

Te UNL program has been very successful with advancements in resistance to buffalograss’s two biggest threats: chinch bugs and leaf spot disease. Tey also are making progress in resistance to false smut.

Amundsen describes his research facility as a standard molecular biology lab. “But we have an incredible resource,

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Buffalograss plugs are highly stoloniferous and can fill in quickly from a single plant. Typically, with one foot spacing, the area will fill in completely in one growing season. Tat’s how research plant materials are planted in the field where most are maintained. Currently, approximately 15 acres are devoted to the collections and the research evaluations, with the largest fields one acre. Ongoing field research includes the most problematic abiotic stresses for buffalograss managers— shade and traffic. Earlier stages of these studies have identified promising accessions in both categories.

Te top performers of varieties introduced to date are Legacy and Prestige, with a broader range of adaptation, good uniformity, a denser canopy and better stress tolerance. Tey are the standard of comparison for new accessions. UNL has a collection of approximately 2,000 buffalograss genotypes. Amundsen attributes that to the early collections and exploiting the collecting trips throughout the Great Plains. He says, “We really have an advantage since buffalograss is native. Te diversity just within Nebraska encompasses four ecoregions: mixed grass, tall grass, Sandhills and shortgrass. Water variations range from 24-to-28-inches of precipitation a year, to 8-to-12-inches. Tat makes the whole state a working lab.”

Variability among elite buffalograss germplasm selections. Photo by Dr. Keenan Amundsen

Amundsen describes his role as combination geneticist, project manager and administrative coordinator. He says, “We have excellent cooperation throughout the UNL agronomy and horticulture department, some highly-skilled technicians and dedicated student assistants. A key step in the final stages of evaluation of our elite germplasm is working with our sod producers for testing under their typical establishment and son

maintenance programs. Teir insights on direct comparisons are critical in determining if there is enough value added

in promising varieties to introduce them.” Suz Trusty is co-editor of Turf News.

TPI Turf News July/August 2016