St. Augustinegrass accessions planted in northern, central and southern Italy: Growth and morphological traits during establishment

Submitted: 19 June 2018
Accepted: 31 July 2018
Published: 9 November 2018
Abstract Views: 1017
PDF: 720
HTML: 19
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

  • Lisa Caturegli lisa.caturegli@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9749-2352 Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
  • Rokhsareh Ramazani Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Pisa, Iran, Islamic Republic of.
  • Marco Volterrani Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
  • Nicola Grossi Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
  • Simone Magni Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
  • Stefano Macolino Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural resources, Animals and Environment, University of Padova, Legnaro (PD), Italy.
  • Cristina Pornaro Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural resources, Animals and Environment, University of Padova, Legnaro (PD), Italy.
  • Salvatore La Bella Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
  • Teresa Tuttolomondo Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
  • Alberto Minelli Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
  • Monica Gaetani Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.

The use of warm season turfgrasses is a consolidated trend in the climatic transition zone of Mediterranean countries, in particular St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze) begins to be widespread in warm coastal areas. However, little is known about the performance of the different cultivars of this species in southern Europe. In 2016-2017 a trial was carried out in three locations in Italy, Padova, Pisa, and Palermo, located in the north, center and south of the country respectively. Four cultivars (Floratine, Captiva, Sapphire, Palmetto) and five ecotypes (CeRTES 201, CeRTES 202, CeRTES 203, CeRTES 204, CeRTES 205) were compared in terms of their growth characteristics and morphological traits during establishment. The results highlighted that stolon growth was significantly affected by the location, as well as green colour retention. Stolon growth rate, internode length and internode volume and turf quality were, however, significantly determined by the accession effect. The quality of the ecotypes was also in some cases comparable to that of the cultivars. In Padova, winterkill occurred in most of the accessions, while in Pisa and Palermo, all the entries survived. In conclusion, St. Augustinegrass is suitable for turf use in the central and southern coastal area of Italy.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

Caturegli, L., Ramazani, R., Volterrani, M., Grossi, N., Magni, S., Macolino, S., Pornaro, C., La Bella, S., Tuttolomondo, T., Minelli, A., & Gaetani, M. (2018). St. Augustinegrass accessions planted in northern, central and southern Italy: Growth and morphological traits during establishment. Italian Journal of Agronomy, 13(4), 332–337. https://doi.org/10.4081/ija.2018.1294