Abstract
An experiment was carried out with the objective to evaluate growth pattern of tropical forage grass under free growth by using morphogenetic and structural characteristics with the expectation of using this study for forage grass evaluation protocol. The experimental area was established with two cultivars of Panicum maximum Jacq. (Mombaca and Aruana), a hybrid cultivar of P. maximum Jacq. and P. Infestum BRA-7102 (Massai), two cultivars of Brachiaria brizantha (A. Rich.) Stapf (Marandu and Xaraes) and Molasses grass (Melinis minutiflora Beauv.) and jaragua grass (Hyparrhenia rufa (Nees) Stapf.). The grasses were planted in 1.0-m² experimental units with 24 plants arranged in a completely randomized block design with three replications. Growth pattern of the grasses was evaluated through mass development, tiller mortality, development stage and leaf longevity. Development patterns differed significantly among groups of grasses, indicating that the same available resources can be used in different manners by grasses from the same genus and/or species.
Highlights
In the search for the understanding of morphophysiological processes and their interactions with the environment (Nascimento Júnior et al, 2002), important morphogenetic studies for the acquisition of this knowledge arise. Such importance is because those processes allow the understanding of the growth process, ecological adaptation and the dynamics of forage accumulation of a particular species, which contributes for the planning and adoption of efficient
Great changes and advances on the study of facts and processes that determine the use of tropical forage plants on pastures (Da Silva & Nascimento Júnior, 2007) have been occurring. Many of these changes and advances arose from studies on morphogenesis, from which it has been searched to better understand the aspects related to shape and function of the plants
Despite being laborious, the study of morphogenesis allows following up the dynamic of appearance of leaves and tillers, components of the target basic product, that is, forage biomass (Nascimento Júnior et al, 2004)
Summary
In the search for the understanding of morphophysiological processes and their interactions with the environment (Nascimento Júnior et al, 2002), important morphogenetic studies for the acquisition of this knowledge arise. It presented negative factorial scores for mombaca, aruana and marandu grasses (Table 2), revealing a slower mass accumulation because those grasses priorize mass development through leaf elongation rate and number of live leaves, with low tillering and low rate of total tiller appearance.
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