ASSESSMENT OF CRESTED WHEATGRASS (Agropyron cristatum L. Gaertn.) POPULATIONS FOR THE AGRO-MORPHOLOGICAL AND THE QUALITY TRAITS UNDER SEMIARID CONDITION

Crested wheatgrass [Agropyron cristatum L. (Gaertn.)] is high adaptability to semiarid and arid regions, and also has good forage quality and palatability. The required new varieties have been improved by effective breeding programs for hay production and rangeland revegetation in arid and semi-arid conditions. The objectives of this study were to identify the agro-morphological and quality traits of the three advanced populations and the control population in crested wheatgrass. The advanced population G-465 was 7.68 and 1.92 t ha-1 in overall averages of fresh forage and hay yields, respectively. According to these values, it is seen that the G-465 advanced population is 5.93, and 6.07% higher than the control population in terms of both fresh forage and hay yields, respectively. Besides, no significant differences seemed among the study populations in crude protein content and relative feed value in 2015 and two-year averages. Consequently, the G-465 advanced population was good performance under semiarid conditions and it is advisable for similar circumstances. For identifying yield-related traits, correlation analysis was performed and high correlation coefficients occurred between fresh forage yield with stem diameter (0.474**), internode length (0.469**), flag leaf length (0.761**), and flag leaf width (0.711**). In light of these data, these traits should be taken into account in the selection of phenotypic plants. Moreover, cluster analysis was also done and its results showed that high similarity levels occurred between fresh forage yield and flag leaf length (88.06%), and between plant height and internode length (78.73%).