Characterization and Agronomic Evaluation of Local Populations of Medicago minima (L.) Collected in Algerian Steppe Area

Abstract

A B S T R A C TM. minima (L.) Bart. is a pasture legume native to the Mediterranean Basin and is present throughout the Algerian territory. The work reported in this study was conducted in the aim to evaluate the diversity of pheno-morphological and agronomic traits in some local populations of Population from Oued Touil region was the earliest and has presented the best vegetative development in winter and in spring. On the other hand, population from Charef presented the best pod and grain yields. The PCA based on morphological and agronomic data clearly discriminated the M. minima populations. For morphological characterization, the two principal components (PC1 and PC2) explained 84.85% of the total variation and for agronomic evaluation, they describe 79.79%. The large variability observed in all traits studied gives the opportunity to select a suitable plant material to exploit to regenerate degraded rangeland and crop-livestock farming systems in Algeria.

Influence of climate variation on phenolic composition and antioxidant capacity of Medicago minima populations

“…Otherwise, the biochemical potential of some Medicago species remains unknown. Medicago minima is a pasture species that grows in cultivated and uncultivated fields, mountain pastures almost all over the world, North Africa, Asia, Europe and the USA [6][7][8][9] . Although some studies have described this species as bioactive isoflavone sources 1,2 , the use of this species remains limited to pastoral animals.…”

“…Therefore, M. minima is unconsumed and unused by humans. Furthermore, this species is widespread in semiarid temperate regions, especially in the Mediterranean Basin 6 . It tolerates the most varied edaphic and climatic conditions 6,8 .…”

“…Furthermore, this species is widespread in semiarid temperate regions, especially in the Mediterranean Basin 6 . It tolerates the most varied edaphic and climatic conditions 6,8 . In Tunisia, M. minima resides in various climatic environments, namely semi-arid and Mediterranean climates, and they are the most abundant annual Medicago plants 10 .…”

Legumes in natural post-fire successions of forest meadows and pastures in Northern Bulgaria

“…Medicago minima has a wide edaphic and climatic adaptation (Chebouti et al 2015). According to the same authors, the ecological adaptation of M. minima is associated with secondary metabolites in the species (Kabtni et al 2020).…”