Flowering Patterns of Miscanthus Germplasms in Korea

Miscanthus has been considered as the most promising bioenergy crop for lignocellulosic biomass production. In Korea, M. sacchariflorus and M. sinensis can be found easily in all regions. It is a great advantage to utilize as important species with respect to genetic and cross-breeding programs materials for creation of novel hybrids. For successful breeding programs, it is important to precisely understand the variability of flowering traits among Miscanthus species as breeding parents materials. In this study, flowering traits were observed daily in 960 germplasms of two Miscanthus species (M. sacchariflorus and M. sinensis) for growing seasons over 2 years. The flowering process was divided into three stages. ST (sprouting time) was recorded when first leaf of the plant emerged on soil. FS1 (flowering stage 1) and FS2 (flowering stage 2) were recorded when flag leaf was firstly observed, and 1 cm of panicle was showing on at least one stem, respectively. For 2013 and 2014, the latest germplasms exerted flag leaf, i.e. September 30 (DOY of FS1 164.1) and September 4 (DOY of FS1 141.0) occurred M. sacchariflorus cv. Geodae 1 and M. sacchariflorus cv. Uram collected from Southern Korea (Jeollanam-do), while Miscanthus germplasms collected from northern Korea (Gyeonggi-do) which emerged the earliest flag leaf in July and August, significantly decreased DOY. For DOY from ST to FS2, M. sacchriflorus germplasms ranged from 140 to 190 days, and 110 to 170 days for 2013 and 2014. The highest frequency showed to 160 days for 2013, and 150 days for 2014. In M. sinensis germplasms, the highest frequency showed to 180 days for 2013, and 170 days for 2014. In the results of correlation between the day of years from ST to FS2 for 2013 and 2014, M. sacchriflorus and M. sinensis showed high coefficient of correlation (0.70 and 0.89). It can be supposed that flowering characteristics of Miscanthus are largely affected by the unique phenotypic characteristic of native habitat than environmental factors of the current planted site. This study for flowering traits of Miscanthus may provides an important information in order to expedite the introduction as breeding materials for creation of new hybrid.