The Effect of Water Deficit Conditions on the Physiological Responses of Seven Amenity Grass Species

BACKGROUND: Drought stress is the main challenge in grassland cultivation and management. Introduction of drought-resistant species in hot climates such as Khuzestan (Iran) is a priority. OBJECTIVES: This study was aimed to assess responses of Seven amenity grass species for morphological and physiological traits in two pot and laboratory conditions. Seven amenity grass species as Cynodon dactylon, Dichondra repens, Festuca arundinaceae (cv. Finelawn, Starlette and Talladega), Festuca rubra (cv.Napoli and Simone), Lolium perenne (cv. Capri, Danilo and Delaware), Poa pratensis (cv. Mardona) and two cv. Sport seed provided from Italy and Netherlands were subjected to four levels of drought stress. METHODS: A factorial experiment was conducted using four levels of water stresses namely well-watered (100% of field capacity) as control, (80%FC, 60%FC and 40% FC) in pot condition and well-watered (0MPa) as control, (-0.3 MPa and -0.6 MPa and -0.9 MPa) in laboratory condition as the first factor and turfgrass species as the second factor on a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 3 replications in 2018, Ahvaz, Iran. Data collected for 14 physiological traits of the seedlings. RESULT: The result of ANOVA showed significant effects of species and water stress levels for all traits (p