Abstract:

In order to identify superior tall fescue varieties for planting in the Chengdu Plain， four varieties of Festuca arundinacea （Kora， Duramax， Tower and Kentucky 31） and two Festulolium varieties （Mahulena and Fojtan） were assessed for phenology， fresh and dry forage yield， nutritional composition and other agronomic traits， and a multivariate evaluation was carried out by grey correlation analysis. It was found that Tower and Kora had the longest seasonal growth period， which was up to 275 days. The average regrowth rate of the six tested varieties ranked Mahulena>Kora>Duramax>Tower>Kentucky 31>Fojtan. The average dry forage yield of Mahulena was the highest at 12790.99 kg·ha^-1. The yield of first-ranked Mahulena was 14.62% and 4.28% higher （P<0.05） than yields of fourth- and third-ranked Tower and Duramax， respectively， while yield of second-ranked Kora was 6.59% （P<0.05） higher than Tower. The plant height of Kora was greatest （100.15 cm）， followed by Tower and Duramax （P<0.05）. Duramax had the highest tiller number （47.33 tillers·plant^-1）， followed by Kora and Mahulena （37.50 and 37.00 tillers·plant^-1， respectively）. These values were all significantly higher than those of Tower. The stem∶leaf of Kentucky 31 was 0.96， higher than that of other tested varieties. The variety with highest crude protein content was Tower （18.60%） and the variety with highest ether extract content was Kora （5.41%）. According to the multivariate comparative analysis using the grey correlation method， Kora， Tower and Mahulena were the best performers among the tested varieties. They displayed excellent field performance and are therefore suitable for utilization in Chengdu Plain area.

Key words: Festuca arundinacea, forage, yield, agronomic traits, nutritional ingredient, grey relational analysis