Distribution and Variation of Kyllinga brevifolia Rottb. in the Turf of Golf Courses

Abstract

Based on the morphological differences of spikelets, 330 clones of Kyllinga brevifolia Rottb. collectede from Kuwana country club (Kuwana city, Mie) were divided into three taxa, ssp. leiolepis, ssp. brevifolia and their intermediate type. Subspecies leiolepis lacks teeth or shows one spinulose tooth on the scale kee lof the spikelets, whereas ssp. brevifolia shows several teethon the scale keel of the spikelets. In the intermediate type, the spikelets exhibit one tooth or several teeth.
Clones of ssp. leiolepis and the intermediate type fairway and rough parts of turf. Oh the other hand, clones of ssp. brevifolia were not distributed in the green and tee parts. In the tee, rough and fairway parts, the former two taxa and ssp. brevifolia generally infested apart from each other.
There were no differences in the dry weight of the shoots and total fresh weight of the spikelets among the three taxa of K. brevifolia. The length of the involucral scale bract relative to the rachis length of ssp. leiolepis and the intermediate type decreased with the increase of the plant length while that of ssp. brevifolia was constant.
Heading time of ssp. brevifolia was evidently earlier than that of the other two taxa. The 100 kernel weight was the lightest in ssp. brevifolia among the three taxa, and the weight of ssp. leio-lepis was slightly lighter than that of the intermediate type. The germination percentage of the fresh seeds of almost all the clones of ssp. brevifolia exceeded 80%. On the other hand, the germination of ssp. leiolepis and the intermediate type showed highly clonal variation.