Evaluation of 16 accessions of Festuca ovina L. in the nursery of Homand-Abesard Rangeland Research Station

The evaluation of Festuca ovina L. with 16 accessions was carried out at Homand-Abesard Rangeland Research Station in order to select the best accession in terms of measured variables. The experiment started in 2003 and continued to 2007. After soil preparation, all accessions were planted on lines with 13 m length with 75 cm intervals. The measured traits for plant selection were forage production, canopy cover, height, seed yield, number of flowering stems, leaf density, plant freshness and basal area. All data were statistically analyzed by SPSS annually and averages were compared using Duncan method. Results showed that there were significant differences among the measured traits and accessions (P≤0.05) in all studied years (2003-2007). In terms of seed yield and forage production, accession 10661 showed superiority to other accessions. This value was 1015 and 8.792 kg per hectare, respectively and the lowest amounts (307 and 6.133) were allocated to accession 10,679. Also, comparison of averages in different years showed that the highest amounts of pure seed in the fourth year were 1066 and 120.76 Kg per hectare, respectively. In addition, mean value comparison of canopy cover and basal area showed that accession 10671 with 2075 cm2 canopy cover and 731 cm2 basal area had superiority to other accessions recorded in 2006 and 2007. Among 8 studied traits in the nursery, 4 traits had effective and similar influence in accessions grouping. Therefore, similar accessions may be separated using fewer traits which are easily measurable and common in range management.