Yanqi Wu of Oklahoma State University's Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources is back from China and telling how Riviera bermudagrass developed by division scientists will be the turf of champions during Olympic baseball games.

"Among the many challenges in preparation of the Olympic venues is to grow adaptive and healthy grass on the three practice and game baseball fields in Beijing," said Wu, a plant breeder in the OSU department of plant and soil sciences.

Summer in Beijing is hot and humid; in spring, windy and drought-stricken; and in winter, quite frigid. China's solution of choice: plant Riviera.

A seed-propagated plant variety, Riviera exhibits superior turf quality; excellent winter hardiness; drought tolerance; excellent color, spring green-up and wear tolerance; improved dead spot resistance and an excellent divot recovery rate. Riviera can be established quickly from seed.

"Can it ever," said Dennis Martin, OSU Cooperative Extension turfgrass specialist. "It wasn't in the ground too long ago. Now it is being used to help showcase Olympic baseball to the world."

The bermudagrass variety was licensed to Johnston Seed Company of Enid, OK, a few years ago for production and marketing of top-quality seed.

All three Olympic baseball fields were originally intended to be seeded with Riviera bermudagrass. However, the seed donated by Johnston Seed Company was held up in customs until July 2007. This led the 2008 Summer Olympics staff to plant two of the fields with a different turf.

Wu said the contractor of the baseball fields, who also happens to be a sod producer, planted the Riviera variety on his farm immediately after the seed cleared Chinese customs. The Riviera sod was harvested and installed on the third baseball field in April 2008.

Murray Cook of the Brickman Group in the United States, the consultant for baseball field construction at the 2008 Summer Olympics, passed on his thoughts about Riviera being a great sports grass.

"He announced that it was performing wonderfully," Wu said. "This is key because it was planted on a combination practice-and-game field that will see more traffic than any other field this week."

Riviera, bred by now retired OSU turf breeder Charles Taliaferro, underwent rigorous testing from 1997 to 2001 in the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program. Trials were conducted at 20 sites across the United States, and Riviera finished first overall.

As for the OSU and Johnston Seed Company connection, it was the decision of the division's Bermudagrass Breeding and Development Team to legally protect the Riviera variety and then work with a company known for its commitment to ensuring product quality and effective distribution.

"You have to pick a partner that you know will maintain the highest standards and safeguard the plant variety from contamination so that it remains viable and performs to expectations," Martin said. "Johnston Seed Company provides that assurance."

"Johnston Seed's Bermuda grass hits the field in Beijing," Enid News & Eagle, Enid, OK