Canopy Characters and Their Relationship to Spring Productivity in <i>Bromus inermis</i> Leyss¹

Abstract

A half diallel cross involving seven clones of smooth bromegrass ( Bromus inermis Leyss.) was used in this study. The objective was to determine the genetic variability of canopy characters such as leaf number, leaf length, leaf area per tiller, leaf angle, leaf rigidity, tiller density and canopy height, and their relationships with spring forage yield. Significant general combining abilities were obtained for leaf number, leaf length, leaf area per tiller, leaf rigidity, tiller density and yield. Significant specific combining abilities were also detected for all characters except leaf rigidity. High narrow‐sense heritabilities were calculated for leaf area per tiller (53%) and tiller density (55%), whereas very low values were obtained for leaf angle (6%), and canopy height (14%). Phenotypic and genotypic correlations showed that tiller density and canopy height were positively correlated while leaf rigidity was negatively correlated with spring yield. However, path coefficient analysis revealed that leaf area per tiller and tiller density were the two major components affecting spring yield.