Response to phosphorus of populations of white clover

Abstract

The response to phosphorus (P) of 8 semi-natural populations and 2 cultivars of white clover was investigated in 4 experiments. Vegetatively propagated plants from 15 genotypes of each population were grown in soil, sand, and solution culture in a glasshouse, and in a solution culture experiment in a growth cabinet. In soil culture, populations collected from low P soils had higher yields and were less responsive to added P than populations collected from high P soils. In sand cultures, there was a significant negative correlation (r = -0.80, P < 0.05) between response to P (over the range 208-832 μM P where only the final 10% of P response occurred) and the soil P content of sites from where populations were collected. However, in solution culture experiments, there were no clear differences for response to P between population groups collected from low P or high P soils, though in the glasshouse there was evidence that populations from low P soils had less dead leaf material and exported less P...