| Abstract: | Summary Spaced swards of 3000 plants and a selected subpopulation of 750 plants of 3 commericial Rhodes varieties, Mbarara, Masaba and Pokot, were studied between 1969 and 1975. Intra-variety variation was large in heading date, vigour of growth, seed (PGS) yield, persistence, drought tolerance and in vitro digestibility.There were on average 6 weeks between the heading date of the first and the last 5% of the plants within a variety. Variation in heading date was largely accounted for by variation in vigour and vice versa. Vigorous plants tended to be early heading and only few plants were found to possess a combination of high vigour and late heading.Among plants equally selected for high vigour from within a variety, early-heading plants were higher in PGS yield, persistence, drought tolerance and digestibility. |
