Texas bluegrass (Poa arachnifera) and big bluegrass (P. secunda) are two extremely heat and drought tolerant species of Poa in the USA. They are distinct in their habitat, form of reproduction, and a number of phenotypic features. The development of a drought tolerant, rhizomatous form of Poa for the Southern Plains would provide a useful forage resource for the regions livestock industry. Interspecific hybrids between a locally collected P. arachnifera accession and a P. secunda cultivar (c.v. Sherman) to determine if hybrids and breeding advances were possible. Results indicated that barriers to hybridization were lim- ited and the 75 interspecific hybrids exhibited characteristics representa- tive of both parents. In addition, four androgenic haploids were generated which would provide useful material for genetic analysis of the Poa ge- nome and studies regarding inheritance of apomixis. The hybrids segre- gated for both monecious and a dioecious phenotypes and exhibited somatic chromosome numbers ranging from 54 to 72. As seedlings, the hybrids were robust and pollen fertility among the hybrids ranged from 0% to 90%. Twelve of the hybrids were seed fertile and 26 of the hybrids were pollen fertile. One dioecious hybrid was both pollen and seed fer- tile. Forage quality estimates indicate that the F1 hybrids will possess quality forage characteristics comparable to Lolium ssp., Bromus inermis, and Dactylis glomerata. The generation of fertile interspecific hybrids Bryan Kindiger is affiliated with the USDA-ARS, Grazinglands Research Labora-