Abstract
To investigate genetic resources suitable for Kitakami highland, perennial ryegrass ecotypes were collected from alpine regions in northeastern Japan and southern Germany and evaluated at an experiment field (970m) near Morioka from 1991 to 1993. As a result of principal component analysis using 13 characters in 1993, cumulative proportion of eigen values of the first and second principal components was 0.73 of total variance. From distribution of eigenvectors of the components, 27 entries were classified into 4 groups which includes two Japanese groups, one of each German ecotype and German cultivar. German ecotypes were better in winter hardiness, higher in percentage of survival plants, earlier in heading date, shorter in plant height and more in number of heads than the other groups. German ecotypes would be one of the promising genetic resources suitable for Kitakami highland. Among Japanese ecotypes, the ecotypes from Iwate showed the latest heading date and the longest in plant height, followed by those collected from Fukushima, from Nagano and from Tochigi. Among Japanese ecotypes, the population collected from Okunakayama (650m) was the best in survival, and exceeded the commercial cv. Friend.
