Plant morphology

About: Plant morphology is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1174 publications have been published within this topic receiving 24418 citations. The topic is also known as: phytomorphology & morphology of higher plants.

Performance of morphologically diverse orchardgrass clones in spaced and sward plantings

Abstract: This study was conducted to determine effects and interactions of plant density on digestibility and plant morphology of diverse orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L) clones Propagules of ten orchardgrass clones with contrasting morphology from two maturity groups (inflorescence emergence differed by 8d) were evaluated in sward (0·15-m centres) and spaced (0·60-m centres) plantings Plants were harvested from spring growth on a common date near anthesis and from summer growth when about 5 weeks of forage growth had accumulated The plants were separated into morphological parts before measuring their size and in vitro digestible dry matter (IVDDM) There were few plant density × orchardgrass clone interactions, and correlation coefficients of clones grown at the two plant densities generally were high (eg 0·87 in spring and 0·67 in summer for IVDDM of total herbage) Plant density had little effect on morphology of leaf blades from reproductive tillers, but leaf blades of vegetative tillers were 12% (spring) and 22% (summer) longer from sward than from spaced plantings Moreover, reproductive tillers were 26% taller in sward than in spaced plantings Also, leaf blades of vegetative tillers in spring growth were more than twice as long, of similar width and 65% thicker than leaf blades from reproductive tillers Because divergent genotypes respond similarly to plant density, it is concluded that observations taken in spaced plantings of orchardgrass can be used to make inferences about relative differences in sward plantings for the traits studied