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Composition and digestibility during ageing of Italian ryegrass leaves of consecutive insertion levels
Author(s) -
Groot Jeroen C J,
Neuteboom Jan H
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0010(199710)75:2<227::aid-jsfa869>3.0.co;2-f
Subject(s) - lolium multiflorum , organic matter , biology , lolium , composition (language) , botany , agronomy , zoology , horticulture , poaceae , ecology , linguistics , philosophy
Organic matter digestibility (OMD) is determined from the proportion of indigestible cell wall (ICW) in the total plant organic matter. To improve understanding of processes governing the proportion of ICW, plant morphological development, and leaf composition and digestibility were studied for Italian ryegrass ( Lolium multiflorum Lam). Since grass is usually grown in swards, a comparison was made between spaced and sward grown plants. The time course of ICW accumulation in individual leaves on the main stem (MS) could be described by a negative exponential saturation curve. Remarkably, the curvature and the asymptotic ICW as a proportion of total leaf cell wall mass were the same for all leaves in both the spaced and the sward plants. Under both conditions, leaves consecutively formed on the MS had lower cell wall digestibility (CWD) at leaf appearance and lower rate of CWD decline during ageing, which could be explained from the longer period between the estimated start of ICW formation and the moment of leaf appearance. The higher cell wall content for consecutively formed leaves and for leaves of the sward plants enhanced the effect of lower CWD on OMD at leaf appearance, but counteracted the lower CWD decline rate, so that all leaves had the same rate of OMD decline with age. The observed trends clearly demonstrate the close link between morphological development and leaf composition and digestibility. © 1997 SCI.