Resumen

GARDUNO VELAZQUEZ, Santiago et al. Morphological, cytological and nutritional value assessment of seven new genotypes and cultivar of grass Cenchrus ciliaris L., cold tolerant. Rev. Mex. Cienc. Agríc [online]. 2015, vol.6, n.7, pp.1679-1687. ISSN 2007-0934.

Genotypes of Cenchrus ciliaris L., from Africa (CGIAR-ILRI, Ethiopia), were evaluated for cold tolerance and the ones with higher adaptation, were characterized by forage attributes: morphology, cytology, nutritional value and compared with commercial variety "Frio". Data were taken to forage maturity, in one cut and analyzed by principal components (CP), hierarchical cluster and analysis of variance. Tetraploid and cold, pentaploid, 2n= 5x= 45 genotypes were selected. The first three components explained 79% of the variation; CP1, 49%; CP2, 22%; and CP3, 9%. CP1 included: plant height, inflorescence length, forage height, FDA, lignin, total PC andl MS; CP2, leave MS, in vitro digestibility (DIVMS) and leaf: stem ratio. Plant height, forage height, stem diameter, inflorescence length and total MS positively correlated (p <0.05) with FDN, FDA and lignin, but negatively, with PC and DIVMS. Three groups were formed: G-1, five genotypes associated to MS yield and negatively to MS quality; G-2, B7 and B-Frio, were associated to forage quality; G-3, isolated genotype, with characteristics associated to inflorescence. There are materials that combine cold resistance and forage quality for the Chihuahuan Desert.

Palabras llave : Buffel; morphological characterization; cytology; principal components.