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Associations Among Morphological and Digestibility Characters in Reed Canarygrass¹

Efficient selection of reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.) genotypes would be aided if morphological traits that are associated with yield and digestibility could be identified. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among leaf rigidity score (LR), canopy height (CH), tiller number (TN), tiller weight (TW), culm diameter, leaf blade fraction (LF), yield (Y), digestible yield (DY), total forage digestibility (TD), plus sheath digestibility (SD), and leaf blade digestibility (LD) of 10 reed canarygrass clones and their topcross progeny grown in microplots. Four location-year combinations were sampled. Correlations of Y with DY were very large and positive, while correlations of DY and TD were generally small and negative. Correlations of Y and TD tended to be small and negative. The correlations of TD with SD and LD were large and positive. Correlations of any one morphological trait with Y were generally opposite in sign to the correlations of that trait with TD. Most traits were positively correlated with Y and negatively correlated with TD; the one consistent exception was LF. Traits which were not negatively correlated with LF included LR and TN. Relationships of the traits included in this study suggest that: 1) selection for DY will probably increase only Y; 2) selection for TD while maintaining Y should be possible; 3) selection for TD may be as effective as selection for LD or SD; 4) simultaneous selection for LF, LR, and TN may be effective in identifying high yielding reed canarygrass genotypes which are also highly digestible.

Key Words: Phalaris arundinacea L. • In vitro dry matter digestibility • Multiple trait selection • Correlated traits • Forage yield components • Forage grass breeding

² Former research assistant (now assistant research scientist, Funk Seeds Int., Algona, IA 50511), professor, Univ. of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, and former professor (now associate director, Montana Agric. Exp. Stn., Bozeman, MT 59797), respectively.

Received for publication August 31, 1983.