A Studies of Wild Grasses for Fodders in Japan. : Studies on the phenological types of wild grasses and on the vegetative reproduction types of perennial wild grasses for fodders.

Abstract

The native wild grasses show different types of growth by the varieties and it is very important to know the favourable season to make the best use of those for fodders. We have made an investigation of the seasonal growth variation of the principal gramineous and leguminous wild gradses useful for fodders in the field and the experimental plots, and classified them into five types as follows ; winter, spring, summer, medium, and the whole year type, and made clear the ecological characteristics of each type. The result of this study shows the most of the wild grasses in Japan belong to the summer type and the rest of thern are scattered in the other four types. And Lotus sp. and Agropyron sp. belong to the whole year type like the exotic meadow grasses. The morphological investigation of the upper parts and underground parts of the perennial gramineous and leguminous wild grasses at the hibernating season shows their different vegetative reproduction types and can be classified into four types.