Morphological and biological variation of the self progeny of Pennisetum purpureum

摘要

Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum), known as elephant grass,is a tall and perennial grass with high yield and has goodpalatabily for cattle in leafy stage.It is indigenous to sub‐Saharan Africa and can be cutted many times a year.It is mainly used to make inter‐specific hybrids with pearl millet ( P.Glaucum ) to increase production.Seed production between napier grass and pearl millet has been carried out for more than 10 years by artificially inducing pollen from napier grass at high latitude region (N 32o ) in China.The seed yield is about to 750 kg/hm2.It is very convenience for farmer to plant.Key techniques of seed production of hybrid was studied.Napier grass was predominantly clonally propagated due to their low setting percentage and seedling growth slowly from seed.Napier grass is open pollinated, so genetic diversity arising from natural crossings is very high (Augustin and Tcacenco 1993).Napier grass N51 was well known and was used as male parent in inter‐specific hybrid production.The objective of this study was to assess the morphological variation and biology characteristic of the self progeny of napier grass N51, and to select new germplasm for inter‐specific hybrids.