Determination of Some Plant and Agricultural Characteristics in Persian Clover (Trifolium resupinatum L.)

Abstract

Forage legumes have been important livestock feed for centuries as pasture, soilage and conserved forage. Because of the large number of species, their wide adaptation to soil and climatic conditions, and their general ability to reseed readily, Trifolium is one of the two most important legume genera in livestock agriculture. Persian clover (Trifolium resupinatum L.), one of the important species of genus Trifolium, has agronomic potential to be grown in Central Anatolia. This study was carried out to investigate some plant and agronomic characteristics of Persian clover lines. A number of lines of this valuable pasture and hay plant were tested for forage yield potential in Ankara conditions. According to the results, the highest natural plant height was measured in Line 5475 as 51.267 cm, the highest plant height was in Line 5475 as 58.987 cm, biggest leaf number was in Line 5453 as 9.6, the widest leaf was in Line 5475 as 22.3 mm, the longest leaf was in Line 5475 as 33.5 mm, the widest stem diameter was in Line 5475 as 55 mm. The highest fresh and dried hay yield obtained from Line 5475 as 1962 kg/da and 331.37 kg/da while Line 5461 gave biggest dried hay ratio as %19.1. Persian clover could be used as a forage crop in Ankara conditions because of it’s high fresh and dry herbage yield. And it can be recommended that Line 5475 is a suitable genotype in the production of fresh and dried hay in Ankara conditions.