Florence Sessoms

New research publication from our team - 9/18/23

Learn more about our research! A new, open access article by Florence Breuillin-Sessoms, Dominic Petrella, Nancy Ehlke, Donn Vellekson and Eric Watkins has been published in the journal Crop Science. This article discusses the research in which several cultivars of Chewings, hard and strong creeping red fescue were interseeded with spring wheat to examine the potential of this method for seed production in northern Minnesota. Unfortunately, this cropping system did not seem optimal for fine fescue seed production so more research is needed. 


University of Minnesota Turfgrass team in the media – 5/19/23

Check out our team’s latest efforts in educating the public about our work. There are three recent articles that feature our team members!


Light reflection and mowing patterns

By Florence Sessoms

As a homeowner, I (my husband) mow our lawn regularly with the simple focus of keeping it at lower height. However, several of my neighbors love to create patterns every time they mow and these patterns can be as elegant as those observed in many sports fields. I love seeing these different stripes of grass color when I watch a soccer on TV, when I visit training facilities (Figure 1) and when I go watch our Minnesota United play (Figure 2).


University of Minnesota Turfgrass team in the media – 2/23/23

Check out our team’s latest efforts in educating the public about our work. A video features Dr. Florence Sessoms and her tall fescue research project with The Ontario Turfgrass Research Foundation.


Snow cover and turf health

By Florence Sessoms


University of Minnesota Turfgrass team in the media – 6/2/2022

Check out our team’s latest efforts in educating the public about our work. Several articles from the UMN Turfgrass Science team was featured in the latest edition of the MGCSA's Hole Notes publication.

See the May 2022 edition of Hole Notes for:


New research publication from our team - 3/30/22

Learn more about our research! A new article from our group has been published in Plant Methods. This research found that layering photoselective filters results in more accurate simulations of foliar shade and offer advantages over neutral density shade cloth in research.

Petrella, D.P., Breuillin-Sessoms, F. & Watkins, E. Layering contrasting photoselective filters improves the simulation of foliar shade. Plant Methods 18, 16 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-022-00844-8