THE role of androdioecy (the presence of male and hermaphrodite individuals in a breeding population) in the evolution of dioecy has long been the subject of much interest and discussion1-9. But no functionally androdioecious species has been previously documented2 and recent studies have even raised doubt about whether the phenomenon exists at all3. Although many cases of androdioecy have been...

Tillering is defined as the process of above-ground shoot production by a single plant. The number of grass tillers is one of the most important parameters in ecology and breeding studies. The number of tillers is usually determined by manually counting the separated shoots from a single plant. Unfortunately, this method is too time-consuming. In this study, a new method for counting grass till...

The productivity of a perennial lupin/cocksfoot mix was compared to that of lucerne in summer dry conditions at Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand. The pastures were planted in December 2013 and rotationally grazed by ewe lambs in autumn 2014 (Year 1), and by ewe hoggets in spring-summer and ewe lambs in autumn of 2014/2015 (Year 2) and 2015/2016 (Year 3). For lupin/cocksfoot relative ...

One of the most potent of these drought survival traits is summer dormancy. Plants that give either nil or minimal growth after rainfall or irrigation in summer are expressing summer dormancy. There have been several field experiments conducted over the recent drought periods where grasses with the summer dormancy trait have had much better survival over extended and intensely dry periods than ...

Effects of harvesting ruminal micro-organisms from ruminal ̄uid on patterns of gas production were investigated in experiment 1 by incubating 200 mg DM of pure cellulose, oatfeed, ryegrass, cocksfoot, wet and dry season kikuyu grasses with either diluted ruminal ̄uid or harvested ruminal bacteria. Gas production degradability parameters obtained from ®tting the data to the model Gas ˆ B(1ÿ expÿ...

The role of sewage sludge as an immobilising agent in the phytostabilization of metal-contaminated soil was evaluated using five grass species viz., Dactylis glomerata L., Festuca arundinacea Schreb., F. rubra L., Lolium perenne L., L. westerwoldicum L. The function of metal immobilization was investigated by monitoring pH, Eh and Cd, Pb, and Zn levels in column experiment over a period of 5-mo...

The starting material used for the isolation of a factor which inhibits the hemolytic activity of streptolysin-O is a wateracetone fraction (manufacturer’s name: Cernitin spissum) of a standardized pollen mixture obtained from six plant species: Zea maize, Pinus montana, Secale cereal, Phleum pratense, Alnus glutinosa, and Dactilus glomerata. The mixture is produced for commercial purposes by A...

In this study, we investigated the impact of different land use intensities (LUI) on the root-associated microbiome of Dactylis glomerata (orchardgrass). For this purpose, eight sampling sites with different land use intensity levels but comparable soil properties were selected in the southwest of Germany. Experimental plots covered land use levels from natural grassland up to intensively manag...

Seed germination generally presents a peak in the next growing season after a fire. Among other factors associated with fire are the increase of soil nitrogen and changes in the pH of the soil. In this study, we addressed the question, whether or not the germination response of eight species is linked with the increase in pH and nitrogenous compounds in the germination media? We assessed the se...

Recent discussion about pasture persistence concentrates on pastures based on perennial ryegrass, the most commonly used grass species. This paper raises the question as to whether some of the causes of poor pasture persistence are due to perennial ryegrass being used in environments to which it is not suited. The adaptation to environmental stresses, particularly water, temperature and nutrien...