How to Identify Rye Grass & Kentucky Bluegrass

Properly identifying the type of grass you have can help prevent you from giving the grass too much or too little water and fertilizer. Likewise, all grasses aren't mowed the same, and shearing rye grass and Kentucky grass too close to the soil can cause bald spots on the lawn. Lawn grass is typically a mixture of grasses instead of a single species. Rye grass is either annual or perennial. Kentucky bluegrass and both rye grasses are cool-season turf grasses. Annual rye grass is used to overseed warm-season grass in areas with moderate temperatures from the fall to early spring. Perennial rye grass tolerates a high amount of traffic and is mixed with Kentucky bluegrass for growing lawns during the cool months of the year in moderate, coastal climates.

Instructions

Rye Grass
- 1
  Feel the texture and examine the color of the grass. Annual rye grass has a coarse texture and is lime-green in color. Perennial rye grass is fine textured and has a rich green hue.
- 2
  Observe how the grass grows. Perennial rye grass forms clumps, while annual rye grass is erect and evenly spread out across the lawn.
- 3
  Inspect the collar area of annual rye grass for the ligule, a membrane like growth at the junction of the blade of grass and the leaf sheaf. It measures about 1/10 inch long. The auricles at the base of the rolled leaf bud are narrow, claw-like and measure up to 1/12 inch long. Perennial rye grass auricles wrap around the stem.
- 4
  Check the shape and length of the grass blades. Annual rye grass blades are rolled inside the collar with flat individual leaves that are glossy and measure up to 10 inches long and 2/5 inch wide. Perennial grass blades are folded or rolled inside the collar with parallel margins, tapered tips and shiny leaf backs. They measure 1/12 to 1/5 inch long.
- 5
  Look at the stems of rye grass. Annual rye grass are clumped together or grow individually. The stems measure about 3 feet tall and are round to slightly flat. Perennial rye grass is shorter, only 1 to 2 feet tall, with a band of purple around the base of the stem.
- 6
  Watch for annual rye grass to flower from April to September with densely clustered spikelets of seeds alternating along the main stem on stalkless florets. Perennial rye grass seeds are loosely clustered on spikelets and lack the bristles that are common to annual rye grass. Perennial seeds flower in late spring and early summer.
- 7
  Look at the roots to determine if it is annual rye grass or perennial. Annual has a shallow root system, and perennial has regular grass roots and no stolons or rhizomes that spread underground.
Kentucky Bluegrass
- 8
  Look at the color and feel the texture of the grass. Kentucky bluegrass is dense, dark-green with a medium texture.
- 9
  Check the shape and length of the grass blades. The individual leaves are smooth, soft, folded in the bud and stiff with parallel blade sides. The tips are boat-shaped, 6 to 12 inches long and up to 1/4 inch wide.
- 10
  Inspect the roots of the grass. Kentucky bluegrass reproduces by rhizomes, which spread underground and make new rhizomes from nodes on the older sections of the root. They penetrate the soil from 2 to 5 or more inches beneath the soil.
- 11
  Check for pyramid-shaped seedheads with a tier of three to five spikelets at the tips of the stems. The seeds are small and boat-shaped, with a hairy, cobweb-like base. The seeds bloom from late May to early June and mature in early- to mid-July.
- 12
  Check the length of the stems. Kentucky bluegrass stems are 12 to 36 inches tall on lawns. The stems may grow from 4 to 6 inches long when used by farmers for intensive grazing.

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