By Beatriz Tome Gouveia, Susana Milla-Lewis and Grady Miller

By developing grasses that need less water, scientists are helping to ensure that we can maintain our landscapes without straining our resources. As climate change intensifies and weather patterns become increasingly unpredictable—bringing longer droughts, rising temperatures, and more extreme conditions—the demand for drought-tolerant grasses has never been greater and will only continue to grow. These innovations not only support sustainable land management but also help communities adapt to a changing climate, ensuring that green spaces remain both functional and visually appealing despite environmental challenges.

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” goes the old phrase, and while we usually associate it to sports rather than science, sometimes the latter can be a team sport too! Fifteen years ago, a group of breeders and researchers from North Carolina State University, Oklahoma State University, University of Florida, University of Georgia, and Texas A&M University joined forces to tackle this challenge head-on. The main objective of this dream team was to develop drought-resistant varieties of the four most popular warm-season turfgrasses: bermudagrass, St. Augustinegrass, seashore paspalum, and zoysiagrass. But perhaps the superhero in this collaboration was the U.S. Department of Agriculture – National Institute of Food and Agriculture, who supported the project through large grants of $3.9M in 2010, $5.3M in 2015, and a last one of $7.9M in 2019, which added University of California Riverside to the team. Beyond the size of the grants, having sustained funding for such a long period allowed the project to mature and produce impactful results.

Read the full article in the May / June 2025 issue of North Carolina Turfgrass – https://theturfzone.com/tcnc/?ascat=9&sub=issue&issue_id=9409&rti=true&rel=2