Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Pullman, Washington » Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #97543

Title: KENTUCKY BLUEGRASS CORE DEVELOPMENT AND UTILIZATION

Author
item Johnson, Richard
item JOHNSTON, W. - WASHINGTON STATE UNIV.
item NELSON, M. - WASHINGTON STATE UNIV.
item GOLOB, C. - WASHINGTON STATE UNIV.
item SITTON, J. - WASHINGTON STATE UNIV.

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/18/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Seed production of Kentucky bluegrass (KBG)(Poa pratensis) traditionally involves post-production, open-field burning. However, public concern over polluting smoke is causing burning to be limited in much of the Pacific Northwest. Germplasm with both high turf quality and enhanced seed yielding capacity under no-burn management is needed. Evaluation of the entire KBG collection for seed production and for turf quality is impractical, so the collection was evaluated for 17 simple morphological descriptors, and a a core collection developed using Ward's cluster analysis. In addition, analysis of 88 RAPD markers was completed on the collection and a RAPD based core developed. Although the morphological and RAPD cores were both diverse, their distance matrices were uncorrelated. The Ward core, along with other selected accessions, is under field evaluation for seed production under burn and no-burn management, and for turf quality. Thus, the core collection has allowed access to the entire KBG collection that would have otherwise been impractical.

Technical Abstract: Seed production of Kentucky bluegrass (KBG) (Poa pratensis) traditionally involves post-production, open-field burning. However, public concern over polluting smoke is causing burning to be limited or discontinued in much of the Pacific Northwest. Germplasm with both high turf quality and enhanced seed yielding capacity under no-burn management is needed. Evaluation of the entire KBG collection for seed production and for turf quality is impractical, so the collection was evaluated for 17 simple morphological descriptors, and a core collection developed using Ward's cluster analysis. In addition, analysis of 88 RAPD markers was completed on the collection and a RAPD based core developed. Correlation between resemblance matrices resulting from euclidean distance for agronomic data and Dice's coefficent for molecular data were highly significant (r=-0.32).The Ward core is under field evaluation for seed production under burn and no burn management, and for turf quality. A wide range of responses is being observed with some accessions showing both high seed yield and turf potential. Thus, the core collection has allowed access to the entire KBG collection that would have otherwise been impractical.