53. Volume 13- Number 1 - IP Australia

DESCRIPTIONS
PLANT VARIETIES JOURNAL 2000 VOL 13 NO. 1
Table 50 Sutera varieties
‘Lavender Showers’ *‘Pink Domino’ A
____________________________________________________
PLANT WIDTH (cm)
mean 77.7 69.5
std deviation 7.2 3.7
LSD/sig 6.5 P≤0.01
____________________________________________________
LEAF WIDTH (mm)
mean 18.4 14.3
std deviation 2.3 1.8
LSD/sig 2.3 P≤0.01
____________________________________________________
FLOWER COLOURS (RHS, 1995)
lobe briefly violet 85A violet 85A
fading to 85C-D fading to 85B
reverse lobe violet 85B violet 85A-B
fading to 85D
____________________________________________________
Trifolium michelianum
Balansa Clover
‘Frontier’
Application No: 1999/023 Accepted: 27 Jan 1999.
Applicant: Minister for Primary Industries and
Resources, South Australia, Adelaide, SA.
Characteristics (Table 51, Figure 56) Plant: annual,
herbaceous, aerial seeding legume, habit prostrate as a
single plant, becoming semi-erect in dense swards. Stem:
glabrous, hollow when elongated, predominantly green
with occasional red colouration. Leaf: trifoliate, alternate,
glabrous, mid-green. Leaflets mainly obovate-elliptical to
oval in shape, margins weakly-strongly serrate, apices
truncate-retuse, anthocyanin pigmentation very low.
Leaflets plain or display white, silver, brown and/or pink
markers. Petioles glabrous, hollow when elongated, light
green. Stipules entire, lanceolate-sagittate, green-red in
colour. Inflorescence: umbellate, 20-25 mm in diameter.
Florets 35-45 per inflorescence. Pedicels bracteate, greenred
in colour. Peduncles glabrous, predominantly green
with occasional red colouration. Flower: corolla white-pink,
with pink flowers typically in the outer whorl of the
inflorescence. Calyx 5mm long, 5 lobes, uneven in length,
2-3 times longer than the tube, green. Seed: typically 3-
4/pod, approx. 1.2 x 10 6 per kg, 97% hard at maturity,
shatters readily. Seed colour variable including olive green,
yellow, light brown, dark brown and black. Other
characters: susceptible to redlegged earth mite (Halotydeus
destructor) and lucerne flea (Sminthurus viridis). Tolerant
of clover scorch (Kabatiella caulivora) but susceptible to
Pythium spp. at the seedling stage. Susceptible to spotted
alfalfa, blue-green and cowpea aphids in glasshouse
screening trials.
Origin and Breeding Recurrent Phenotypic Selection:
‘Frontier’ was developed through 3, and in some cases 4
cycles of single plant selection from ‘Paradana’. Selection
commenced in 1989 when 32 early flowering plants were
identified in ‘Paradana’ (17 plants) and line WA 426B (15
plants). WA 426B is also a selection made within
‘Paradana’ by R. Snowball, Australian Trifolium Genetic
Resource Centre, Perth. Seed was collected from these
selections and re-sown in rows in 1990 to confirm flowering
dates and for seed increase. In 1991, seed from the 15
earliest flowering lines was re-sown, with 23 new selections
being made on the basis of early maturity. In addition, in
1991 another 20 early flowering plants were identified in
new sown ‘Paradana’ pastures. In 1992, seed of each of the
1991 selections (43) was sown in rows and 50 selections
made on the basis of early flowering and plant vigour. This
process was repeated in 1993 (55 selections made). The
1993 selections were grown at Pinnaroo, South Australia in
1995 and assessed for maturity and dry matter yield. Thirty
lines were retained and entered into a 3-year national
evaluation. Upon completion, 20 of the 30 lines under test
were selected and “bulked” in equal quantities to form
‘Frontier’. ‘Frontier’ differs from the parental variety
‘Paradana’ in that it is earlier flowering, it has different leaf
markings and degrees of leaf serration and its main stem
elongates earlier than that of ‘Paradana’. ‘Frontier’ also
produces heavier seed than ‘Paradana’. ‘Frontier’ is a
composite cultivar of 20 individual lines. Selection criteria:
early flowering and improved plant vigour. Propagation :
seed. Breeder: A. D. Craig, Naracoorte, SA.
Choice of Comparators ‘Paradana’ and ‘Bolta’ were
selected as comparators as they represent the only two
balansa clover cultivars of common knowledge.
Comparative Trial Comparators: ‘Paradana’, ‘Bolta’.
Location: Naracoorte, SA (36°54´S., 140°56´E.), conducted
over winter-spring-summer 1999/2000. Conditions: single
plants (28 per replicate) sown and maintained in a
glasshouse for six weeks prior to planting in the field on 31
Aug 1999. Fertilised in the glasshouse with foliar nutrients.
Single plants sown 1m apart. Field plots (3m x 1m) sown at
30 kg/ha seed on 27 Jun 1999 and fertilised on 10 Aug 1999
with superphosphate (9% phosphorus) at 100 kg/ha. Trial
design: single plants and field plots sown using a
completely randomised block design, each with five
replicates. Measurements: vivid pink leaf markings, leaf
serration and length of main stem determined on single
spaced plants. Date of full flower, white/silver central leaf
markings and seed mass determined from replicated plots
(swards). Leaf markings and degree of leaf serration
determined as “counts”.
Prior Applications and Sales Nil.
Description: Andrew Douglas Craig, South Australian Research &
Development Institute, Naracoorte, SA.
Table 51 Trifolium varieties
_______________________________________________
‘Frontier’ *‘Paradana’ *‘Bolta’
____________________________________________________
LEAF MARKERS
Frequency of a vivid pink marker
many (36.0%) few (10.9%) few (15.1%)
Frequency of a white/silver central marker
few very many very few
mean 9.4 106.6 0.4
χ 2 /sig 711.8 a /61.18 b P≤0.01 P≤0.01
____________________________________________________
71