Abstract

OLIVERA-CASTRO, Yuseika; CASTANEDA-PIMIENTA, Lisset  and  TORAL-PEREZ, Odalys Caridad. Morphobotanical characterization of Cenchrus purpureus (Schumach.) Morrone plants from a national collection. Pastos y Forrajes [online]. 2017, vol.40, n.3, pp. 184-187. ISSN 2078-8452.

The objective of the study was to make the morphobotanical characterization of a group of Cenchrus purpureus plants, from a collection carried out under field conditions in two geographical zones of Cuba, on a Ferralitic Red soil. Eight quantitative and seven qualitative traits were evaluated, in two phenological phases: vegetative and reproductive. The variability in this collection was determined through a principal component analysis (PCA). The quantitative descriptors with higher variability were the number of internodes, limbo length and width, length of the leaf sheath and vegetative height. Among the qualitative descriptors, all the plants had erect growth habit and inflorescence shaped as a spiciform panicle; the color of the leaf parts was generally green, just like that of the stem, although the plants with keys 603 and 607 showed maroon shades. In the accessions no hairs were observed on the underside of the leaf limbo, but they were observed on the bundle, which is characteristic of the species. It is concluded that the evaluated material has high variability in several quantitative descriptors, which should be taken into consideration in future research about the breeding and selection of this species for its inclusion in animal husbandry systems.

Keywords : breeding; grasses; forage plants.

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