Welcome to Acta Prataculturae Sinica ! Today is

Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2026, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (6): 73-82.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2025244

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Evaluation and screening of Achnatherum inebrians germplasm lines for use as bird-repellent turfgrass

Jia-ling YU(), He-na LIAN, Wan-ning YANG, Zi-tong ZHOU, Zhen-jiang CHEN(), Chun-jie LI   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems,Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation,Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs,Engineering Research Center of Grassland Industry,Ministry of Education,Gansu Tech Innovation Center of Western China Grassland Industry,College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology,Lanzhou University,Lanzhou 730020,China
  • Received:2025-06-23 Revised:2025-08-08 Online:2026-06-20 Published:2026-04-13
  • Contact: Zhen-jiang CHEN

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to identify Achnatherum inebrians germplasm with bird-repellent potential for airport turf establishment. To this end, 22 accessions collected from Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, and Gansu during a single growing season were cultivated and acclimatized at the Yuzhong Experimental Station, and their morphological traits and ergonovine content were determined. There were significant differences in plant height, tiller number, effective tiller number, canopy width, and ergonovine content among different A. inebrians germplasm lines. Specifically, the germplasm lines ZMC9, ZMC10, ZMC12, and ZMC16 had plant heights below 80 cm; ZMC1, ZMC17, ZMC18, and ZMC19 had more than 130 tillers per plant; ZMC5, ZMC14, ZMC15, ZMC17, and ZMC18 produced more than 35 effective tillers per plant; ZMC13, ZMC14, and ZMC15 had canopy widths exceeding 85 cm; ZMC4, ZMC16, ZMC17, and ZMC20 had alkaloid levels exceeding 240 mg·kg-1 during the tillering stage; and ZMC4, ZMC9, and ZMC20 had alkaloid contents exceeding 130 mg·kg-1 at maturity. Grey relational analysis and weighted relational analysis ranking preliminarily screened out four germplasm lines, namely ZMC4, ZMC9, ZMC17, and ZMC20, as being suitable for airport turfgrass establishment. These four germplasm lines had low plant height, high tillering capacity, large crown width, and a high ergonovine content, indicative of good bird-repellent potential. These findings provide a foundation for breeding avian-deterrent A. inebrians cultivars that are particularly suitable for cultivation in airport environments.

Key words: germplasm resources, Achnatherum inebrians, morphological index, ergonovine, grey relational analysis