Page 47 - Transitioning Turfgrass

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6 ETS Field Days
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Perspective Use of Rhinanthus

Alectorolophus for Suppressing

Tall Fescue in Golf Roughs

Stanislav Hejduk, Department of Animal Nutrition and Grassland Management, Mendel University (Brno,
Czech Republic), Cristina Pornaro, Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals, and
Environment, University of Padova (Italy), Alessandro De Luca, Italian Golf Federation, Green Section (Sutri,
Italy), Stefano Macolino, Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals, and Environment,
University of Padova (Italy)

The importance of naturalized roughs at golf
courses is increasing in order to reduce mainte-
nance costs and enhance biodiversity. However,
they are often dominated by one or a few grass
species. One way to enrich of biodiversity is the
introduction of hemiparasitic plants to the roughs.
Hemiparasites are photosynthetic plants which
can ‘steal’ water and nutrients from their hosts. A
promising hemiparasite plant is European yellow
rattle (Rhinanthus alectorolophus), already studied
in order to enhance diversity and reduce biomass
production in roughs dominated by tall fescue
(Festuca arundinacea Schreb.). Tall fescue is a
vigorous grass known to have allelopathic effects
and is linked to low diverse stands. The experiment
was conducted from November 2016 to June 2017
in two locations: Kaskáda Kuřim Golf Course in
Czech Republic and the Agricultural Experimental
Farm of Padova University in northeastern Italy
(Heyduk et al., 2018). The field trials were estab-
lished in both sites on existing mature grassy sward
dominated by tall fescue. The effect of seeded
R. alectorolophus, nitrogen fertilization and the in-
teraction of the two was investigated. The results
highlight that R. alectorolophus reduced tall fescue
dry mass and height, giving evidence on the poten-
tial use of R. alectorolophus for reducing tall fescue
biomass. The present study aims to corroborate the
results found by preliminary experiments. A field

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