Comparison of herbage yield of European and Mediterranean ecotypes of white clover

Abstract

A medium-leaved certified white clover (Tr(fo/ium repens L. 'Grasslands Huia'), a largeleaved white clover ecotype from Spain, and a hybrid of these ('Grasslands Pitau'), were grown as spaced plants in the field in the South Island, New Zealand. A comparison of the components of herbage yield obtained from measurements of growth on a marked stolon showed that during winter, late winter, and spring, the leaf dry matter (OM) yield of the Spanish ecotype exceeded that of Huia by up to 70%. There was little difference in the total number of leaves formed per stolon, the number of leaves grown per unit stolon length, or specific leaf weight. and hence OM yield differences resulted from the considerably larger area per leaf developed by 'Spanish', which was between 70% and 100% larger than that of Huia. Pitau was mostly intermediate in leaf character, sometimes aligning with Spanish and sometimes with Huia. The superior leaf growth of the larger leaved white clovers during all three observation periods agrees with other observations on the temperature responses of these cultivars, i.e., superiority at either 'Iow' or 'high' temperature -in this instance, monthly mean temperatures were all 'Iow'. Although the periods of observation were relatively short, some results su'ggest that leaf longevity may be greater for largeleaved ecotypes. Stolons grown by the ecotype from Spain were almost twice as heavy as those from Huia on a weight per unit length basis. Pi tau was intermediate. Otherwise, stolon growth was little different between cultivars for length and number. Other reports on the performance of white clovers, together with the results obtained in this investigation, lead to the conclusion that any condition which impairs the expression of potentially larger leaf size will reduce or eliminate the herbage production superiority of the larger leaved white clovers.

Responses of Trifolium repens L. root structure and function to shading and phosphorus shortage: limits to adaptative plasticity during establishment?

“…Trifolium repens is a shade avoider species (Lemaire and Millard,1999) that maintained the S/R until a radiation of 212 µmol m − 2 .s − 1 -. This threshold is consistent with the photosynthetic asymptote located around 238 µmol.m − 2 .s − 1 (Beinhart, 1962;Smetham, 1972). Below 200 µmol.m − 2 .s − 1 the S/R increases;…”

Performance of white clover cultivars and breeding lines in a mixed species sward 2. Plant characters contributing to differences in clover proportion in swards

“…Leaf number per active apex did, however, make an important contribution to early spring growth, increasing from 1 in early spring to 3.5 by early summer. Smetham (1986) associated the DM superiority of Pi tau over Huia in New Zealand with its ability to produce larger leaves; impairment ofleaf size development reduced the superiority of Pitau. Thus in times of stress, continued white clover DM production is more reliant on stolon growing point density whereas in more favourable growing conditions leaf size and At various times during the year, white' clover yield has been related to a number of morphological characters.…”