Phenotypic diversity in timothy grass (Phleum pratense L.) collected from North Western Himalaya, India

Abstract

Assessment of the phenotypic diversity of 30 landrace populations of timothy grass originated from the Srinagar and Budgam regions of Jammu and Kashmir, Western Himalaya, India was studied during the crop season (August to September) of 2013. A total of 30 accessions [Verma-124 to Verma-153 with distinct traits of feed and fodder importance were identified. Seeds of the identified accessions was collected during following dormant period (December-January) and planted for evaluation and conservation in the field gene bank. Prior to collection of seeds, passport data and data pertaining to fodder and flowering traits were recorded. Days to germination ranged from 21.27–30.43, plant height at 50% flowering ranged from 58.12–102.63cm, number of vegetative tillers plant-1 from 1.01–8.90, number of reproductive tillers plant-1 from 2.71–26.89, tussock diameter from 10.41–20.76cm, culm length from 26.57–116.52cm, leaf blade length from 14.64–23.59cm, leaf blade breadth from 0.42–0.92cm, leaf area from 6.84–18.65cm2, leaf weight from 17.89–38.63g, stem weight from 19.99–57.98g, leaf/stem ratio from 0.39–1.76, fresh fodder yield from 3.53–6.67Kg m-2, dry fodder yield from 2.36–6.45Kg m-2, spike or inflorescence or panicle length from 5.14–10.95cm, spike/inflorescence weight 8.47–22.68g, number of spikelets/spike from 3.01–3.98, ligule length from 1.31–1.47mm, number of florets/spikelet 3.12–4.04, seed length from 0.10–0.20mm, seed breadth from 0.02–0.08mm, root depth from 1.22–1.95cm, root length density from 3.04–4.63cm cm-3), 1000-seed weight from 0.76–0.92g and seed yield from 6.40–11.87q/ha. The accessions collected from different sites were found to have fairly rich diversity in parameters under study. Accession No. IC-0615761 (Verma 146: IGFRIRS-Phleum-23 was found suitable as high yielding fodder strain from North Western Himalaya with good nutritive value.