Özet:

Orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) is one of the essential foraging species which is used as a cool-season persistent and perennial forage grass. This research was carried out during the 2019 growing season in the Eastern Anatolia region in Turkey. The aim of our research was to study the morphologic characteristics of natural Orchardgrass and to assess the genetic diversity of collected genotypes to determine the best genotypes available for future breeding programs. In each location, the seeds of Orchardgrass were randomly collected and then were planted in the greenhouse. After germination, the Orchardgrass seedlings were transferred from the greenhouse to the field. Genotypes were investigated regarding plant height, flag leaf length, flag leaf width, number of nodes per plant, length of the upper internode. The results of this study showed highly significant differences between genotypes for studied traits. Furthermore, our results showed that the morphological traits studied (plant height, flag leaf length, flag leaf width, node number per plant, and length of the upper internode) had the following respectively ranges (47.43 -77.57 cm, 9.00-15.57 cm, 4.21- 6.93mm, 2.14 -3.00, 9.64-17.57 cm, respectively). The analysis indicated that there was a positive significant correlation among the most morphological traits studied. The cluster analysis showed that the genotypes of the fourth group, (H5, M75 and A121) had the best genotypes for morphological traits studied. These genotypes can be used in future breeding programs.