Potential of Serradella as a winter annual forage legume on sandy coastal soil

Abstract

Three species of Serradella, Ornithopus sativus . O. pinnatus , and O. compressus cv. ‘Pitman’, each at diploid and tetraploid levels, were compared with two varieties of subterranean clover, ‘Mt. Barker’ and ‘Tallarook’, on Himatangi sandy soil. Productivity ciata are presented for mown plots for the second year of a trial in which the legumes were permitted to reseed naturally. Reseeding of the diploid serradellas and the subterranean clovers was excellent. Tetraploid O. compressus cv. ‘Pitman’ reseeded sufficiently to produce a sward in the second year, but tetraploid O. sativus and O. pinnatus failed to re‐establish naturally and were resown by hand. O. sativus at both ploidy levels outyielded all other lines by about 2000 kg DM/ha (25%). Diploid O. compressus cv. ‘Pitman’ and ‘Tallarook’ subterranean clover each produced about 8000–9000 kg DM/ha. Tetraploid cv. ‘Pitman’, both lines of O. pinnalus , and ‘Mt. Barker’ were inferior. These results indicate that further evaluations of Serradella on sandy soils are justified.