Evaluation of half-sib families of tall fescue Lolium arundinaceum (Schreb) for agro- morphological traits

Tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum (Schreb) SJ Darbysh.) is one of the Fescue species that widely used as forage grass. Tall fescue is self-incompatible and wind cross pollination. This study was conducted to study agronomic and morphological characteristics of 25 polycross families of tall fescue during 2011 and 2012 at Research Station farm in Isfahan. Number of days to pollination، height of plant، number of fertile tiller، length and width of flag leaf، stubble surface، spike length، seed and forage yield were evaluated. The highest and the lowest of forage yield were 107 g (family number 25) and 47 g (family number 13)، respectively. For seed yield، family numbers 2 and 12 had the highest means and the family number 13 had the lowest mean. Broad-sense heritability of seed yield per plant and seed yield per acre were 68 and 36، respectively. Based on the results of cluster analysis، all families were clustered in four groups. Analysis of variance and mean analysis showed the highest means families for evaluated traits. To improve stubble surface with low broad-sence heritability cross genotypes from first and third group with higher means and genetic distances would be successful. Due to high broad-sense heritability for plant hight and spike length select of families from third group could be useful for breeding programs in future.