Spaced plant evaluation of Mediterranean germplasm collections of perennial ryegrass

Summary A sample of 50 wild populations of perennial ryegrass (12 from northern Italy and 38 from Corsica) was tested with controls as spaced plant nurseries in two locations in France. Multivariate analyses, such as principal component analysis, hierarchical clustering and factorial discriminant analysis were used to describe the genetic variability of such Mediterranean material.On the whole, Mediterranean populations do not appear to be more promosing than the north European varieties. However, some populations from Corsica could be used to develop genetic resources for the Mediterranean area.The interest of each cluster is discussed and geographical repartition of clusters is shown on country maps.The factorial discriminant analysis gives a linear discriminant Fisher function which clearely discriminates two groups of populations according to their country of origin.