Short-culm rice cultivars have been widely cultivated to get high yields because of their high lodging resistance and good light intercepting characteristics of the canopy. However, the potential for biomass production and yield is higher in long-culm cultivars than in short-culm cultivars. To breed high biomass producing cultivars using the beneficial characteristics of the long-culm rices, lodging resistance should be introduced. We bred a new long-culm rice cultivar with superior lodging resistance for forage use, 'Leaf star'. Shoot biomass in Leaf star was 12.6t/ha and 40% higher than that in Koshihikari. Leaf star had a very high breaking strength of the basal internode due to the large section modulus and the large bending stress. Long-culm rice cultivars with heavy biomass and superior lodging resistance can be utilized as biomass resources.
