Effects of density and management on components of floret production in Lolium ( multiflorum lam. x perenne l.) ‘grasslands manawa’ ryegrass

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Abstract
The effect of seedling density and cutting intensity on components of floret production in Manawa ryegrass was investigated. Correlations between floret production, pre-flowering tillering, aftermath tillering, and awning were examined in relation to the hypothesis that genotypes tending towards L. multiflorum are increased during seed multiplication. Decreasing density markedly increased inflorescence number/plant and increased florets/spikelet, but decreased spikelets/inflorescence. Lenient cutting increased inflorescence number/plant and spikelets/ inflorescence, but produced a compensatory decrease in florets/spikelet. Plants producing the greatest number of florets were those with the greatest number of tillers in the pre-flowering stage, but which showed the greatest decline of tillering after floret harvest. This implied that genotypes with growth patterns tending towards L. multiflorum would have increased in the seed population, but the observation that strongly awned plants produced fewer florets than weakly awned plants implied a shift away from L. multiflorum.