Rising global temperatures and the decreasing amount of water available for irrigating crops has become a major concern, especially in the turfgrass industry. These trends highlight the need adopt turfgrasses that are better adapted to both current and future climates. Bermudagrasses (Cynodon (L.) Rich) are warm-season grasses that are well-adapted to warm and dry climates, making them an ideal turfgrass for regions where water may be scarce. The genus also boasts a large range of genetic diversity, which can be leveraged to improve consumer- and agronomic-related traits, such as winter color retention. However, genomic resources are lacking for bermudagrass and distinguishing between species can be difficult given their phenotypic plasticity and morphological variation. This makes it difficult to effectively utilize the genetic diversity available in germplasm collections for breeding. In this dissertation, I first examined the systematics of the Cynodon genus and proposed the reclassification of several accessions collected from publicly available germplasm repositories. Exploratory work was done to identify and develop genetic markers that may aid breeders and taxonomists in identifying some of the bermudagrass species. Next, I evaluated the performance of inter- and intraspecific bermudagrass hybrid accessions under prolonged and repeated drought conditions using a novel method. Results from this study suggest the presence of different types of stress memory among the accessions, suggesting that this method may be useful in both selecting for improved drought tolerance as well as enhancing the drought tolerance of established stands. Lastly, I conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify markers associated with winter color retention in a population of bermudagrasses. Despite several limiting factors in the study, such as admixture and differences in ploidy throughout the population, results from the GWAS identified two significant DNA polymorphisms, with one aligning to a gene known to be involved in cold stress response in maize. This dissertation emphasizes the need to develop more genomic resources for bermudagrass in order to select for accessions with improved consumer- and agronomic-related traits.