Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the agronomic traits of 80 accessions of elephant grass under the soil and weather conditions of Campos dos Goytacazes/RJ, Brazil. The experimental design was set as randomized blocks with 2 replicates. The experiment continued from March 2012 to May 2013, with 5 harvests made in the dry and rainy seasons. The following traits were assessed: percentage of dry matter (%DM), dry matter yield (DMY), number of tillers per meter (NT), plant height (HGT), stem diameter (SD), leaf blade width (LBW) and leaf blade length (LBL). Data from each harvest were subjected to analysis of variance and to the Scott-Knott test (P < 0.05). Tocher’s optimization method, Mahalanobis distance, and canonical variables were utilized for the multiple traits, and the importance of the characters in the canonical variables. Genotypes with high yield were Elefante da Colômbia, Taiwan A-25, Albano, Hib. Gigante da Colômbia, Elefante de Pinda, Taiwan A-121, P241 Piracicaba, Guaçu/I.Z.2, CPAC, EMPASC 309, EMPASC 307, Australiano, and Pasto Panamá. Stem diameter (rainy season) and LBW (dry season) were the most important variables to differentiate between genotypes. There was wide phenotypic variation between genotypes, which could be divided into 15 groups by Tocher’s optimization method.
Highlights
Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.) is a tropical, perennial species with a high photosynthetic capacity
In the present study we addressed clustering through Tocher’s optimization method by Mahalanobis distance (D2), which adopts the criterion that the average of the dissimilarity measures within each group should be lower than the distances between any groups
The overall mean for dry matter yield (DMY) in the 5 harvests was 23.92 t/ha, with 45.6% produced during the dry season, and the remaining 54.4% produced during the rainy season (Table 2)
Summary
Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schum.) is a tropical, perennial species with a high photosynthetic capacity. Introducing elephant grass germplasm has proved efficient in the identification of genotypes with desirable features (Shimoya et al, 2002; Lima et al, 2011) for future breeding programs. This demonstrates the importance of establishing and maintaining germplasm banks so as to guarantee the availability of the genetic variability necessary for breeding programs. The elephant grass is a species of forage that has been highlighted by the nutritive balance and the healthy forage production per unit area (Ferreira et al, 2010). Levels lower than 7% are limiting to animal production due to digestibility coefficients and negative nitrogen balance. The chemical composition of elephantgrass is not limiting the digestion of non-ruminal fiber, which ends up reflecting not the animal's weight gain (Garcia et al, 2011)
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