Drought resistance of perennial grasses.

An experiment was conducted to determine the responses of 7 native and 3 introduced perennial grass species to continuous drought. Leaf survival during severe drought varied among the species nearly four-fold, from 11 to 40 days. Some native species had the longest and some the shortest leaf survival times, with the introduced species ranking intermediate. The value of deep roots was not tested in these experiments, but some species exhibited various morphological traits which contributed to survival during severe drought, such as leaf folding or rolling, leaf shedding and leaf wax coatings