Registration of ‘Boyero UNNE’ Bahiagrass

Abstract

‘Boyero UNNE’ (Reg. No. CV-5, PI 676021) bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flüggé) was registered with the National Register of Plant Cultivars and the National Register of Property for Plant Cultivars, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock Exploitations, and Fisheries of Argentina, Resolution no. 276 in August 2012 (Reg. No. 3213) and released by the National University of the Northeast (UNNE), Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (FCA), Corrientes, Argentina. Boyero UNNE is a tetraploid, highly apomictic F1 hybrid developed between an experimentally obtained female parent, reproducing sexually, and an apomictic, wild bahiagrass genotype. It is the first registered cultivar of a tetraploid apomictic P. notatum developed by breeding through a sexual × apomictic hybridization scheme, exploiting apomixis and plant selection in the F1 progeny. The new cultivar has a more upright growing habit than tetraploid bahiagrass cultivars currently in use or wild tetraploid biotypes. It can produce approximately 19% more forage dry matter than its apomictic male parent, largely exceeding (20–51%) the wild bahiagrass type currently found in natural pasturelands of northeastern Argentina, and it produced 4 to 26% more than the cultivar Argentine at three locations in Florida, USA.