Phalaris improvement in Australia

Abstract

The genetic improvement of Phalaris aquatica L. and its scientific basis are reviewed. The few accessions made in the 1890s gave rise to cv. Australian. Trumble selected ‘Gb81’ within ‘Australian’. Major collections in 1951 and 1954 gave cultivars Sirocco and El Golea through selection within Moroccan ecotypes, and cultivars Sirosa, Sirolan, and Holdfast by hybridisation with ‘Australian’, followed by recurrent selection for various traits. Selection within the seed‐retaining Argentinian cultivar El Gaucho, gave ‘Seedmaster’, and a single mutant seed‐retaining plant within ‘Australian’ gave ‘Uneta’. Future cultivars are previewed and alternative selection methods, such as widespread testing of synthetics, are discussed.