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THE STABILITY OF S23 PERENNIAL RYEGRASS DURING SEED MULTIPLICATION
Author(s) -
Cooper J. P.
Publication year - 1959
Publication title -
grass and forage science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1365-2494
pISSN - 0142-5242
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2494.1959.tb01014.x
Subject(s) - perennial plant , biology , seedling , agronomy , crop , tiller (botany) , inbreeding depression , multiplication (music) , inbreeding , mathematics , population , demography , sociology , combinatorics
In outbreeding species, such as perennial ryegrass, most plants are heterozygous for genes controlling agronomic characters and varieties must usually be based on more than one plant to avoid inbreeding depression. This leads to the possibility of change under the selective action of seed multiplication. Several stocks of S23 perennial ryegrass were examined to see whether such a change occurred; Irish, Kent and Hunsballe were grown for comparison. The characters recorded were date of ear emergence, winter requirement before heading, and leaf size, rate of leaf appearance, tillering and dry‐weight production in the young seedling. A slight shift towards earliness of heading occurred during seed multiplication, but no regular change in the other characters could be detected. The S23 stocks could readily be distinguished from Hunsballe and, less easily, from Irish, as early as the sixth leaf stage. It is concluded that although considerable genetic variation for all these characters exists within the S23 stocks, changes during seed multiplication are not inevitable but depend on the management of the crop.