An investigation and comparison of quantitative yield and morphological properties of Persian clover (Trifolium resupinatum) lines in Karaj

Considering the decreasing amount of livestock feeding supplies and the overgrazed rangelands in Iran, growing forage plants has gained a prominence. Clover, which is among the most important forage crops, not only produces high quality forage for animals, but also plays a special role in enhancing soil fertility through fixing the nitrogen of the air. Persian clover is one of the important subspecies of clover which is native of Iran and Mediterranean regions. In an attempt to determine the quantitative yield and morphological properties of 15 lines of Persian clover, a split-plot experiment was carried out in a completely randomized block design with 15 treatments and 4 replications in the 400-hectare research field of the Institute of Plant Breeding and Seed Preparation in Karaj. On the basis of the results, Lordegan cultivar with 62.63 t/ha in the first cut had the highest wet forage yield. From among the total cuts, Kurdistan, Lordegan, and Mahaliy-e Zabol second cut cultivars had the highest yields with 123.99, 121.98, and 119.58 t/ha, respectively. Regarding dry forage yield, the highest amount belonged to Mahaliy-e Zabol cultivar with 12.04 t/ha in the first cut and after all cuts, Eqlid-e Fars, Mahaliy-e Zabol, and Baladeh-e Kazeroun had the highest yields with 24.35, 24.25, 22.07 t/ha, respectively. With respect to morphological properties, the highest leaf to stem ratio in the first cut and the highest stem with 61.25 cm in the second cut belonged to Eqli-e Fars cultivar.