Episode: VIC Waterwise Special ? Our Changing Climate
Presenter: Neville Passmore

University research has identified a fault line in drought tolerance. On one side grasses that are summer dominant are able to survive dry times and on the other cool season types like Fescue, Ryegrass and Bent literally kark it when the going gets tough.

A common feature of the toughies is the presence of thick horizontal growing stems called rhizomes or stolons, these store moisture and food that enables the grass to survive restricted watering.

Couch types such as Winter Green (Cynodon datylon ?Wintergreen?) have fine foliage that can be cultivated to a bowling green standard. Buffalo grasses such as Velvet and Palmetto (Stenotaphrum secundatum ?SS100?) have a broader blade and come without the skin irritating silica daggers.

These have excellent wear recovery and very good tolerance to shade.

The new grass on the verge is a remarkable new selection of Zoysia (Zoysia japonica ?SS500?) grass from Brazil called Empire. This is slow growing which translates to ? the mowing of buffalo and outstandingly water efficient so it can survive on less water than either couch or buffalo types and Zoysia doesn?t invade garden beds.

Neville thinks this lawn is the wave of the waterwise lawn future; less water, less work and less fertiliser sounds good.