Botanical Components of Annual Mediterranean Grassland as Determined by Point-Intercept and Clipping Methods

Abstract

Three methods for determining proportions of botanical components, i.e., grasses, legumes, and forbs (nonleguminous dicots), of continuously grazed Mediterranean pastures were compared. Percentage contribution to dry matter yield was determined by sample clipping and separating into botanical components. Both percentage of sward and specific contribution were determined by the point-intercept method. These were defined by the relative contribution of 1 botanical component to the total number of counted intercepts between 200 pins inserted vertically into the sward and all botanical components. For specific contribution only the number of pins contacted by the various botanical components were considered, whereas for percentage of sward even multiple contacts between a pin and plant parts of a particular botanical component were taken into account. Percentage contribution was highly significantly correlated with percentage of sward (R = 0.92) and specific contribution (R = 0.93) running the analyses across all botanical components, although there was a significant trend to underestimate forbs and overestimate legumes by the point-intercept methods. It is concluded, however, that for most practical purposes determination of specific contribution, the least laborious method, should give satisfactory estimates of percentage contribution.