Publication Number 418-012, July 1996
Figure 4 Grazing and utilization methods are related to the morphological characteristics of grasses. Bluegrass has small leaves and tillers and forms a dense sod because of invading rhizomes (underground stems) that produce roots and tillers. Orchardgrass and tall fescue have large tillers and leaves. Nonstructural carbohydrates are high in basal parts of tillers. With bluegrass and fescue reserve nonstructural carbohydrates appear in tillers and rhizomes. Close grazing depresses orchardgrass more than fescue and fescue more than bluegrass because progressively more of the leafblades and carbohydrates in tillers are removed by close grazing. Bermudagrass, a warm season grass, thrives under close or lax grazing because a high leaf area is maintained and nonstructural carbohydrates in rhizomes and stolons are protected from grazing. New tillers and roots develop from buds in rhizomes and stolons.
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