SEED YIELD IN RELATION TO GROWTH AND MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE PLANT IN LOLIUM PERENNE

M. Razec, M. Neagu and C. Chiper

Grassland Research Institute, Cucului Str.  No.5

2200 Brasov, Romania

The vegetative tiller evolution and their transformation in generative tillers together with morphological structure of plant are elements, which are associated with seed production.  For knowledge of these aspects there were studied four perennial ryegrass varieties with different ears emergence dates and ploidy degree.  The growth and morphological structure analyses and correlation between these and seed yield were carried out.  Perennial ryegrass varieties were strongly differentiated by the dynamic of vegetative tillers formation, the total number of vegetative tillers and proportion of generative tillers.  The generative tillers proportion depends on the age and development level of vegetative tillers.  The late varieties have a lower percent of generative tillers and have also a low rhythm of growth in first part of vegetation. The negative correlation between DM and leaves and seed yield and other positive correlation between DM ears and seed yield were found. There results can be a support for breeding and seed production technology of perennial ryegrass.

Keywords: crop growth; correlation; Lolium perenne varieties; morphological structure; partitioning of dry matter plant; perennial ryegrass; tillering.