Establishment phase characteristics of Brazilian native grasses for use in turfgrass

The objective of this work was to evaluate the establishment phase characteristics of Brazilian native grasses with potential to be used as turfgrass.
Vegetative propagules from accessions Axonopus parodii (AP 01), Paspalum lepton (PL 01) and P. notatum (PN 01, PN 02, PN 03, PN 04, PN 05 and PN 06) were planted directly in the soils spaced 10×10 cm.
The experiment was conducted in a randomized block design, with four repetitions of each accession, in the Rain Forest Zone of the State of Pernambuco, Brazil (lat. 08°01’19”S; 34°59’33”W; 100 m a.s.l.) in October, 2013. At 69 days after planting (DAP), vegetative propagules of the accessions were evaluated in terms of turfgrass: survival rate (SR – %); soil coverage rate (SCR – %); lateral growth expansion (LGE – cm); and height (H – cm). The scores were assigned to the accessions.
The PL 01 presented the greatest SR (97.00%) and SCR (93.08%) similar to PN accessions (SR≥83.00% and SCR≥92.31%). The accession AP 01 had the lowest SR and SCR (77.00 and 84.62%), but it exhibited the greatest LGE (26.69 cm). The AP 01, PN 01, PN 03, PN 05 and PN 06 had lower values of H (≤12.60 cm) suggesting less mowing would be required.
In terms of higher values to SR, SCR, LGE and lower values for height (H), the PN 1, PN 03 and PN 05 accessions had the greatest scores (10 points) for all analyzed variables.
These preliminary results demonstrated that native species AP 01, PL 01, PN 01, PN 03 and PN 05 have positive attributes to breeding programs and selection to turfgrass.

XXX International Horticultural Congress IHC2018: VII Conference on Landscape and Urban Horticulture, IV Conference on Turfgrass Management and Science for Sports Fields and II Symposium on Mechanization, Precision Horticulture, and Robotics

S.Á.C. Gomes da Silva, A.G. dos Santos, S.S.L. Silva, F.H.D. de Souza, V. Loges

landscaping, native plants, ornamental turfgrass

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1279.24