Cross‐Fertility Differentials in Birdsfoot Trefoil1

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Abstract
The flowers of 13 selected birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculaius L.) genotypes were cross‐pollinated by hand in a complete diallel after emasculation to prevent selling. Fertility was measured by pods/flower pollinated (P/F), seeds/pod (S/P), and seeds/flower pollinated (S/F). The 156 crosses showed a continuous range in fertility from 0.98 P/F, 25.3 S/P, and 22.5 S/F to virtual sterility (no pods or seeds). All estimates of genetic variance (females, males, and females ✕ males) for cross fertility were highly significant (P < 0.01), except the interaction for S/P (P < 0.05). The genetics of male fertility appeared to differ from that of female fertility. Male effects were more important than female effects, especially for S/P. Although all these three measures of fertility ranked the plants similarly as females and males, S/F accentuated differences among plants owing to the accumulative effects of P/F and S/P on S/F. We concluded that genotypic differences in cross fertility can induce disproportionate genetic arrays in trefoil populations, even when other causes of nonrandom mating are absent.