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Article: Molecular Analysis of White Clover Population Structure in Grazed Swards during Two Growing Seasons.
- Article from:
- Crop Science
- Article date:
- July 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Crop Science Society of America. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHITE CLOVER is an important functional component of temperate grazed ecosystems because of symbiotic nitrogen fixation and its high nutritional quality (Caradus et al., 1996) as an animal feed. White clover is a stoloniferous, obligately outcrossing, tetraploid species. It flowers prolifically during the growing season, and even under grazing produces significant levels of viable seed that end up in the soil (Chapman and Anderson, 1987; Charlton, 1977).
In spite of the presence of viable white clover seed in the soil (Tracy and Sanderson, 2000), few of these seeds germinate and even fewer seedlings become established in grasslands (Barratt and Silander, 1992; ...