CSIRO Publishing Books Journals About Us Shopping Cart You are here: Journals > Crop & Pasture Science   
Crop & Pasture Science
  Plant Sciences, Sustainable Farming Systems & Food Quality
 
Search
 
 
  Advanced Search
   

Journal Home
About the Journal
Editorial Board
Contacts
Content
Current Issue
Just Accepted
All Issues
Most Read Papers
Special Issues
Research Fronts
Farrer Reviews
Sample Issue
For Authors
General Information
Notice to Authors
Submit Article
Open Access
For Referees
General Information
Review Article
Annual Referee Index
For Subscribers
Subscription Prices
Customer Service
Print Publication Dates

 Early Alert
Subscribe to our email Early Alert or RSS feeds for the latest journal papers.

 Connect with us
facebook   youtube

 PrometheusWiki
PrometheusWiki
Protocols in ecological and environmental plant physiology

 

Article << Previous     |     Next >>   Contents Vol 61(1)

Variation in pheno-morphological and agronomic traits among burr medic (Medicago polymorpha L.) populations collected in Sicily, Italy

D. Graziano A, G. Di Giorgio A, P. Ruisi A, G. Amato A B, D. Giambalvo A

A Dipartimento di Agronomia ambientale e territoriale, Università di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze, 90128 Palermo, Italy.
B Corresponding author. Email: amato@unipa.it
 
PDF (446 KB) $25
 Export Citation
 Print
  


Abstract

The present study assessed the diversity of pheno-morphological and agronomic traits among 31 natural populations of burr medic (Medicago polymorpha L.) from different environments throughout Sicily, and analysed the patterns of phenotypic diversity in relation to the environmental parameters of each collection site. Three commercial cultivars (Cavalier, Santiago, and Anglona) were also included in the study as check cultivars. Two field experiments were performed in 2005–06 in a hilly area of the Sicilian inland. Principal components analysis (PCA) was performed on the sites using geographic, climatic, and pedological data to assess the differences in types of collection sites. PCA was also performed on the accessions using pheno-morphological and agronomic data to establish the importance of different traits in explaining multivariate polymorphisms. Sicilian burr medic populations showed highly significant inter-population differences for all of the recorded pheno-morphological and agronomic traits, and several populations had agronomic attributes that were more pronounced than those of the check cultivars. PCA did not clearly differentiate the accessions according to their habitats of origin, but in some cases, accessions from the same habitat had a tendency to stay together. Populations from drier and warmer habitats flowered earlier and were less productive than those from wetter and colder ones. The large variability in both pheno-morphological and agronomic traits among Sicilian populations may be valuable when searching for suitable M. polymorpha material to exploit in pastures and crop–livestock farming systems in the Mediterranean region.

Keywords: annual medic, Mediterranean environment, phenotypic variability, genetic diversity.


   
Subscriber Login
Username:
Password:  

    


 
Top  Email this page
 
Legal & Privacy | Contact Us | Help

CSIRO

© CSIRO 1996-2012