COLLECTION OF FODDER AND LAWN GRASS ACCESSIONS IN WESTERN REGIONS OF UKRAINE

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Date posted online

13.06.2017

Institution

Institute of Agriculture of Carpathian region NAAS

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INTRODUCTION

Abstract

Goal.  Replenishment of the gene pool of leguminous and cereal perennial forage crops with accessions that are of value to breeding for forage and seed productivities and environmental stress resistance.

Results and Discussion. The results of a joint Ukrainian-Lithuanian expedition to collect accessions of wild leguminous and cereal perennial grasses in the western region of Ukraine conducted in 2012 are presented. Locations in Lviv, Transcarpathian and Ivano-Frankivsk regions were explored. Locations of valuable accessions of the gene pool of forage crops were identified. Forty nine accessions of wild forage grasses belonging to 10 species were collected. To collect seeds of wild grass, we primarily explored natural meadows. Festuca rubra L., Dactylis glomerata L., Arrenatherum elatius (L.) M. et K., Bromus inermis Leyss., Trifolium repens L. are often found in dry areas; Festuca pratensis Huds., Trifolium pratense L., Lotus corniculatus are scarcer. Medium-moistened bottomland meadows are the richest in valuable forage grasses; Poa pratensis L., Festuca pratensis Huds, Agrostis alba L., Poa palustris L., Dactylis glomerata L.,  Alopecúrus praténsis L.,  Trifólium hybrídum L.,   Trifolium pratense L.  and others grow here. Valuable wild forage grasses are found in large arrays or (more frequently) in narrow bands. They grow predominantly in mixtures and sometimes are weeded. In most of the meadows, as a result of economic activity, Sónchus arvénsis L., Urtica  and  Elytrigia repens L. Are common weeds

In the exchange with the Institute of Agriculture of Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, 22 accessions of wild forms of perennial leguminous and cereal grasses were obtained. The collected accessions are being tested in the Laboratory of Grass Breeding of the  Institute of Agriculture of the Carpathian region of NAAS, which maintains collection of corresponding crops to evaluate their economic and biological traits and to determine the feasibility of inclusion them in national collections. Expedition members gained practical skills in organizing and conducting field expeditions to collect the plant gene pool, to keep logbooks, to determine types of agrocenoses, to use GPS devices. The material is valuable because it is autochthonously Ukrainian, since it is adapted to the conditions of the western regions of Ukraine.

Conclusions.  The areas of Western Ukraine were explored. Forty-nine wild accessions of forage grasses belonging to 10 species were collected. It is advisable to continue exploration of this region, encompassing other towns and attracting a wider variety of species.

Keywords

collection, introduction, expedition, accession of the gene pool, wild plant conservation, forage and lawn grasses, genotype