Collection and morphological characterization of Panicum coloratum L. in Argentina

LORENA ARMANDO; ALICIA CARRERA; ANDREA TOMÁS

GENETIC RESOURCES AND CROP EVOLUTION

SPRINGER

Lugar: Dordrecht; Año: 2013 vol. 60 p. 100 - 120

0925-9864

Panicum coloratum (Poaceae) is a perennialgrass native to South Africa, distributed all overthe world, but poorly adopted by ranchers in Argentina.Adapted to a wide range of soil and climaticconditions, it constitutes a good forage resource forzones with edaphic and climatic restrictions, wherecattle rising activities are here displaced. The highpolymorphism in the species has made it difficult todelineate sub specific taxonomic categories. It hasbeen classified in botanical varieties, types and/orcultivars. In order to document the morphologicalvariability in P. coloratum and to investigate thedifferences between var. makarikariense andvar. coloratum, a collection was gathered in INTARafaela composed by fourteen accessions from differentprovinces of Argentina: six accessions ofvar. makarikariense and eight from var. coloratum.The evaluation of 152 individuals gives evidence of awide morphological variation in the collection in traitsrelated to forage and caryopses production; seven outof nine traits showed significant differences betweenvar. makarikariense and var. coloratum. Based on thestudy of local type specimens, a morphological key todistinguish between P. coloratum varieties is provided.These results report new information about thediversity in P. coloratum in Argentina and providevaluable insights for future use of the collection as thebase material of a breeding program.