Forage potential of legumes native to sub‐tropical southeastern USA

摘要

The subtropical part of the southeastern USA is one of the most difficult areas of the world for forage development.Climatic conditions range from tropical summer temperatures with high humidity to short periods of sub‐freezing winter temperatures.Many forage legumes adapted to more temperate area have been evaluated for use in this region, but fail due to lack of summer persistence and successful pasture applications have been very limited.Likewise forage legume species from more tropical areas of South America and SE Asia often experience winter‐kill and have found limited use.Additionally, root‐knot nematodes ( Meloidogyne spp.) ( RKN) may dramatically limit legume persistence in lighter textured soils of this region.Research with the seven T ri f olium spp.native to this region ( T.bej ariense Moric., T.calcaricum J.L.Collins & Wieboldt,T.carloinianum Michx., T.polymorphum Poir., T.re f lexum L., T.stoloni f erum Muhl.ex Eaton,and T.v irginicum Small), has shown that they generally have higher levels of RKN tolerance than introduced T ri f olium species (Quesenberry, et al., 1997 ).We hypothesize that evaluation of legume species native to the region and similar subtropical climatic zones will identify species with higher success potential.