High water requirement of imported grasses, their non-adaptability to climatic conditions of Iran and hard accessibility to desirable imported seeds necessiate to introduce and to study indigenous grasses. Therefore developing cultivars of grasses adapted to dry climate of Iranian regions is one of the most critical objectives of plant breeders. This research was conducted in two studies. In the first study, 126 genotypes from 19 species of different grasses were evaluated for different ornamental and forage traits. Results showed that there was a considerable variation among species for all traits indicating selection can be effective for these traits. According to the result of this study, Paspalum dilatatum was identified as superior species in terms of forage production. Festuca ovina and Festuca rubra species did not differ significantly from Sportiv o (Lawn grass mixture) cultivar and could be its potential alternative. Festuca arundinacea had a breeding potential on both forage grasses and ornamental characteristics. Among Festuca arundinacea , genotype 61 was the best in terms of forage grasses traits and genotypes 65 and 70 were identified as the best in terms of ornamental traits. Tall fescue genotypes was divided into three groups: colony parents, half sib progeny (polycross) and other genotypes. Among these three groups, half sib progeny was good in terms of ornamental characteristics and were medium in terms of forage grasses traits. Given that this research will continue in drought stress, it is expected that there will be drought tolerant genotypes to replace the current sensitive ones to be growning grassland and parks. In the second study, genetic analysis was performed on various ornamental and forage grasses traits in 24 polycross progeny of Festuca arundinacea . The highest genetic and phenotype coefficient of variation was observed for number of stem, summer dormancy, fresh matter yield and dry matter yield. In this study, the number of stem, dry matter yield percentage, leaf texture, density and color showed the highest amount of narrow–sense heritability, respectively. High genetic gain for these traits indicated the high efficiency of breeding methods for the development of improved cultivars using these traits. Key words : Grass, summer dormancy, persistence, polycross, genetic gain