Morphological characteristics of inflorescences and seeds and germination potential of a variety of elephant grass early flowering

Abstract

In recent decades, energy demand has become a global problem and many countries are struggling in the economy for the price of fossil fuels and their derivatives. To circumvent the dependence on oil and the environmental crisis, one option is the use of alternative energy. Within the panorama of sustainable development highlight the use of plant biomass as an energy source. The plant biomass produced by elephant grass can be used to produce energy so, the elephant grass can become a strong ally in reducing the greenhouse effect by absorbing large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. This method for the production of alternative energy was modeled after the Clean Development Mechanism, as proposed by the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. Among the grasses, Napier grass has the highest dry matter production per area. Elephant grass is mainly propagated vegetative, however, has seeds with a wide range of fertility and also in breeding programs is necessary to use seeds to reproduce. In this context, we assessed the morphological characteristics of inflorescences and seeds and germination potential of 27 accessions of this species. During the work, four inflorescences were collected from each of the twenty-seven accessions of elephant grass considered earlier flowering. These inflorescences and seeds were subjected to analysis of eight morphological characteristics, germination test, counting the caryopses in the fruits; and statistical analysis. Considering the analysis of variance, only for the CRI did not change significantly. Based on the criteria for grouping the means of Scott-Knott noted the formation from 2 to 5 groups for the two morphological groups and evaluated for germination. Genotypes Mercker 86 - Mexico, Napier SEA, Puerto Rico, Common Merckeron Teresopolis, Merckeron Common Pinda and Turrialba remained within the group with germination above 30%. However, among the genotypes of group A of germination only Mercker 86 - Mexico had its highest percentage of fruits formed by three caryopses. Genotype Merckeron Common Pinda obtained the highest germination percentage (85.5%).