Association of aluminium tolerance with morphological traits in lucerne (Medicago sativa L.)

Abstract

The experiment was carried out at the Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture under greenhouse conditions in spring–summer 2008. The experimental material consisted of 37 accessions of M. sativa subspecies differing by aluminium tolerance, and three Lithuanian cultivars (‘Augūnė II’, ‘Birutė’ and ‘Žydrūnė’). A statistically significant variation among the accessions was apparent for all the nine morphological traits studied (P < 0.05). These traits were plant rankness, amount of leaves, height, stem density, stem thickness, stem position, leaflet size, chlorophyll concentration, seed yield. The number of accessions that statistically significantly exceeded all Lithuanian cultivars varied from 1 to 20 out of 37 accessions, depending on trait. Accession ‘PI 573140’ was superior by the values of seven traits from those nine studied. Accession ‘PI 419506’ exceeded Lithuanian cultivars by values of five traits, and six accessions (‘PI 573135’, ‘PI 502485’, ‘PI 499547’, ‘PI 310338’, ‘PI 452444’ and ‘PI 478550’) were superior by values of four traits. The paired regression analysis revealed that tolerance to Al in lucerne accessions was not statistically significantly negatively related with morphological traits. Al tolerance positively significantly (P < 0.05) correlated with height and seed yield, r = 0.353 and r = 0.339, respectively. Some positive tendency was observed in the case of rankness (r = 0.207), stem thickness (r = 0.211) and stem position (r = 0.307). A negative tendency was observed for the amount of leaves (r = –0.239). Keywords: lucerne, aluminium tolerance, morphological traits