AEC Glacier alpine bluegrass

Transcription

1 CULTIVAR DESCRIPTION AEC Glacier alpine bluegrass B. A. Darroch 1,2, S. N. Acharya 3, and J. Woosaree 1,4 1 Alberta Research Council Inc., P.O. Bag 4000, Vegreville, Alberta, Canada T9C 1T4; 3 Agriculture and Agri- Food Canada, Lethbridge Research Centre, P.O. Box 3000, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada T1J 4B1. Received 20 November 2000, accepted 26 June Darroch, B. A., Acharya, S. N. and Woosaree, J AEC Glacier alpine bluegrass. Can. J. Plant Sci. 82: AEC Glacier alpine bluegrass, Poa alpina L., is a reclamation cultivar developed for use in reclaiming and revegetating disturbed sites at high elevations. It is the second alpine bluegrass cultivar released by the Alberta Environmental Centre, Vegreville, AB. This cultivar is expected to complement a prior release, AEC Blueridge alpine bluegrass. AEC Glacier is adapted to high elevations where it is capable of rapid growth and seed production. Key words: Alpine bluegrass, Poa alpina, cultivar description, reclamation Darroch, B. A., Acharya, S. N. et Woosaree, J Pâturin alpin AEC Glacier. Can. J. Plant Sci. 82: Le pâturin alpin AEC Glacier, Poa alpina L., est un cultivar spécifiquement créé pour restaurer et reverdir les sols perturbés à haute altitude. Ce cultivar est le deuxième de pâturin alpin homologué par l Alberta Environmental Centre de Vegreville (Alberta). La nouvelle variété sert de complément au cultivar AEC Blueridge, homologué précédemment. AEC Glacier est adapté aux endroits en altitude où il s établit et produit des semences rapidement. Mots clés: Pâturin alpin, Poa alpina, description de cultivar, restauration AEC Glacier (PO-1003) alpine bluegrass, Poa alpina L., was released by the Alberta Environmental Centre (now Alberta Research Council) in AEC Glacier was released to complement AEC Blueridge alpine bluegrass [released in 1994 (Darroch and Acharya 1996)] for reclaiming and revegetating disturbed sites in the mountains and foothills of Alberta. The availability of a second alpine bluegrass cultivar provides for an increase in plant diversity in reclamation seed mixes. Both AEC Glacier and AEC Blueridge have similar areas of adaptation, although AEC Glacier is adapted to slightly lower elevations, up to 2400 m. It is capable of rapid growth and seed production in the short growing seasons of high elevations. When grown at the low elevations of the prairie region, AEC Glacier is short-lived (4 to 5 yr), similar to AEC Blueridge (Darroch and Acharya 1996). AEC Glacier seed production fields on the prairies can be harvested for seed for only 2 to 3 yr following the establishment year. Origin and Breeding AEC Glacier was derived from a single plant collected in 1985 from a site (elevation 1880 m) in Phillip s Pass near the Crowsnest Pass in southwestern Alberta. The parent plant was selected from a collection of alpine bluegrass 2 Current address: Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tennessee at Martin, Martin, TN USA. 4 To whom correspondence should be addressed ( jay@arc.ab.ca). 95 plants from 235 sites in the mountains and foothills. The seed from this plant has been multiplied and tested through successive generations. Breeder seed was first bulked in 1989 (in the third generation from collected plants). Plant Characteristics Like AEC Blueridge (Darroch and Acharya 1996), AEC Glacier alpine bluegrass is a perennial bunch grass. It reproduces apomictically, a characteristic common in alpine bluegrass biotypes from northern countries (Müntzing 1954; Müntzing and Müntzing 1971). Plants are generally 15 to 40 cm tall and leaves are mostly basal. Leaf blades have a distinct boat-shaped tip. The head is an open panicle, pyramidal in shape. There are 5 to 6 florets per spikelet and spikelets have a bronze colour, although the glumes may be somewhat purplish. Glumes are unequal and have short tip awns less than 1 mm long. Lemmas have pronounced hyaline margins and are hairy, especially on the keel and marginal nerves. There are no awn tips on the lemmas. Performance Nugget Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) and Reubens Canada bluegrass (P. compressa L.) were used as check cultivars in alpine bluegrass evaluation trials because there were no cultivars of alpine bluegrass available. This complicated the evaluation, because alpine bluegrass is a bunch grass whereas Kentucky bluegrass and Canada bluegrass have rhizomatous growth habits (Hodgson et al. 1971; Jacklin 1976). In small plot trials at mountain sites, AEC Glacier performed better than Nugget and/or Reubens, pro-

2 96 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PLANT SCIENCE Table 1. Performance of AEC Glacier alpine bluegrass, AEC Blueridge alpine bluegrass, Nugget Kentucky bluegrass, and Reubens Canada bluegrass in small plot trials seeded in 1990 at Columbia Icefields (elevation 1860 m, Jasper National Park, Alberta) and Mountain Park (elevation 1800 m, south of Hinton, Alberta) Location Year harvested Cultivar Percent cover (%) Seed yield (mg m 1 ) z Plant height (cm) Columbia Icefields 1992 AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget 14 0 Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) AEC Glacier 18 y AEC Blueridge 18 Nugget 3 Reubens 14 SE (n = 6, df = 45) AEC Glacier 53 0 AEC Blueridge Nugget 4 0 Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) Mountain Park 1992 AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget 7 6 Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) Mean AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens z Row spacing was 1 m. No, or few, seed heads produced in trial. ducing greater cover in 7 site-years and higher seed yields in 4 site-years (Table 1). Percent cover values for AEC Glacier were similar to those for AEC Blueridge, although AEC Blueridge produced more seed in 4 site-years. AEC Glacier ripened by late July to early August at mountain sites while seed of Nugget or Reubens did not ripen until mid- to late September or early October, increasing the likelihood of frost damage to the developing seed heads. The production of mature, viable seed is important for alpine bluegrass cultivars because seed production is the most effective way that this species can propagate, thus increasing plant density and stand longevity in reclaimed areas. At plains locations, AEC Glacier had the highest mean seed yield with a mean of 301 kg ha 1 (10 site-years) compared to 170 kg ha 1 for AEC Blueridge, 158 kg ha 1 for Nugget and 198 kg ha 1 for Reubens (Table 2). AEC Glacier outyielded the other cultivars in 6 site-years. Even though it had higher seed yields, AEC Glacier produced fewer seed heads than the other cultivars (Table 2). On average, AEC Glacier matured 1 wk earlier than AEC Blueridge, 3 wk earlier than Nugget and 4.5 wk earlier than Reubens. It was similar to AEC Blueridge and Nugget in height but shorter than Reubens. Maintenance and Distribution of Pedigreed Seed Breeder seed of AEC Glacier will be maintained by the Alberta Research Council Inc., Vegreville, Alberta. The multiplication and distribution of Foundation and Certified seed will be handled by Prairie Seeds Inc th Street, Nisku, Alberta, Canada T9E 7S8. The technical assistance of M. Pahl, B. James, D. Pewarchuk, and seasonal staff is gratefully acknowledged. We thank R. Hermesh for his assistance throughout the development of this cultivar and Dr. N. Fairey of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Beaverlodge, for his assistance in final evaluation trials. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of Parks Canada and the Albert Agricultural Research Institute.

3 DARROCH ET AL. AEC GLACIER ALPINE BLUEGRASS 97 Table 2. Performance of AEC Glacier alpine bluegrass, AEC Blueridge alpine bluegrass, Nugget Kentucky bluegrass, and Reubens Canada bluegrass in small plot trials at Vegreville (elevation 640 m), Beaverlodge (elevation 730 m), and Plamondon (elevation 560 m), Alberta Year Seed yield Number of heads Time to maturity Plant height Location Seeded Harvested Cultivar (kg ha 1 ) (no. m 1 ) (days z ) (cm) Vegreville AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n =6, df = 45) AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) Beaverlodge AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n = 6, df = 45) Plamondon AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n = 4, df = 27) AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens SE (n = 4, df = 27) Mean AEC Glacier AEC Blueridge Nugget Reubens z Days from April 15 to maturity.

4 98 CANADIAN JOURNAL OF PLANT SCIENCE Darroch, B. A. and Acharya, S. N AEC Blueridge alpine bluegrass. Can. J. Plant Sci. 76: Hodgson, H. J., Taylor, R. L., Wilton, A. C. and Klebesadel, L. J Registration of Nugget Kentucky bluegrass (Reg. No. 5). Crop Sci. 11: 938. Jacklin, A. W Canada bluegrass plant. United States Patent. Plant Pat. 3,828. Müntzing, A The cytological basis of polymorphism in Poa alpina. Hereditas 40: Müntzing, A. and Müntzing, G An apomictic biotype of Poa alpina in the Koster islands of Sweden. Hereditas 67:

5 This article has been cited by: 1. L. Pecetti, M. Romani, P. Spoleto, A. Tosca, G. Della Marianna, F. Gusmeroli Morpho-physiological variation of Poa alpina L. genetic resources from the Rhaetian Alps, Italy, grown in two altitude-contrasting sites. Grass and Forage Science 70:3, [Crossref]