EN
Our society is becoming more environmently senstive. There is a portion of population that perceives turfgrass management as a waste of resources and damaging to the environment. There is need to minimize the total expense of lawn management and to conserve water. In near future there will be an increasing market for low-maintenance turfgrass. The evaluation of turf quality of 11 ecotypes from genus Koeleria were taken in turf experiment. Further, two selected ecotypes were evaluated in extensively treated turf experiment (low fertilisation, water deficit) with special close mowing to provoke water deficit damage. Turf quality of junegrass ecotypes was similar to the quality of kentucky bluegrass, red fescue and perennial ryegrass and sward density variation of junegrass were smaller than in other tested species. Response of junegrass plants to water deficit was very fast and plants turn brown and become dormant after 15 days of drought. After 7 days of water application dormant plants turn back green to initial condition (i.e. condition before the drought period) same as sheep fescue (cv. Gabi), chewings fescue (cv. Nimba), strong creeping red fescue and perennial ryegrass varicties. It was concluded that Koeleria can partially escape droughts by reducing leaf and relying on dormant stage to enable rapid regeneration when rain falls. It could become valuable component of grass mixtures for sites with water deficit.