Preliminary study on germplasm resources diversity of Eremochloa ophiuroides (Munro) Hack. in East China.II.Variation and morphological types

The morphological characters of 36 representative centepedegrass provenance from East China were observed and analyzed.The results showed that : (1)the obvious variation of 9 morphological characters of centipedegrass germplasm resources from East China was discovered. Their variation coefficients are ranked as follows:Seed set (150%) internode length (22.1%) turf height (21.0%) leaf blade length (17.3%) height of reproductive branch (15.2%) inflorescence length (14.1%) the number of spikelets per inflorescence (12.3%) leaf blade width (11.8%) internode diameter (11.5%). (2) There exists significant correlations among some of morphological characters of centepedegrass germplasm resources in East China. Leaf blade length is positively correlated with internode length, turf height, height of reproductive branch at very significant level with the coefficients of 0.6443, 0.6327, 0.4366, respectively. Blade width is positively correlated with internode length and internode diameter at very significant level with the coefficients of 0.5432 and 0.4996. Internode length is positively correlated with turf height at very significant level with the coefficient of 0.6142.Height of reproductive branches is positively correlated with inflorescence length and the number of spikelets per inflorescence at very significant level with the coefficients of 0.6533 and 0.5320. Inflorescence length is positively correlated with the number of spikelets per inflorescence at very significant level with the coefficient of 0.8906. (3) Centipedegrass germplasm resources in East China can be divided into three morphological types based on the nine morphological characters, that is, dwarf type, tall type and common type. (4) Height of reproductive branches of centepedegrass germplasm resources in East China is positively correlated with the correspondent latitude at significant level; inflorescence length and the number of spikelets per inflorescence are positively correlated with the correspondent longitude at significant level.