Study on yield and morphological traits on seven species of Poa genus in Zanjan province rangelands

In order to assessment of adaptation of some important species of poa genus, an experiment was conducted using 27 genotypes that had been collected from various parts of Zanjan province rangelands, Iran. The treatments were arranged using an unbalanced CRD (nested design). Data were collected and analysis for of forage yield and other 18 morphological traits for individual years and combined over 2 years. The results showed significant differences among species and genotypes within species for all of traits, which indicated highly genetic variation in Iranian Poa genus germplasm. For plant height, P.sinaica and P.trivialis were taller and dwarfed ones, respectively. The results showed P.sterilis and P.araratica (with average values of 52.1 to 51.8 g/plant aerial biomass and P.sterilis and P.araratica (with average values of 31.5 to 23.3 g/plant dry matter, had higher production. It was concluded that genotypes P.sterilis3 and P.araratica11 with average values of 1.2 and 1 tonha-1, respectively, had good adaptation for cultivation and rangelands improvements in province of Zanjan.