Abstract
Morphological characteristics of fine type zoysiagrasses in southeast Asian regions and southern Kyusu, Japan were examined and variations were evaluated by using cluster analysis of SPSS Ward method. Urban areas of Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Kyusu Japan were visited to collect data and to compare with typical fine type zoysiagrasses in Korea. Zoysia matrella (L), Zoysia pacifica (Goudswaard) formerly known as Z. tenuifolia (Willd. Ex Trin.) and their hybrid types were found with no clear species separating criteria. Morphological shoot characteristics of leaf blade length and width, leaf sheath length, angle of leaf blade from shoot axis, and degree of leaf hairs were measured to distinguish species and ecotypes. Three groups were clustered as Group I ; fine texture (average blade width of 1.4 mm) with short leaf blade (22.1 mm) and sheath (9.4 mm) with minimum leaf hair, Group II ; medium texture (average blade width of 2.0 mm) with longer leaf blade (43.0 mm) and sheath (14.5 mm) with slightly more leaf hair, and Group III ; medium texture (average blade width of 2.0 mm) with intermediate leaf blade (32.7 mm) and sheath (12.7 mm) with even more leaf hair. Korean fine types were found to be in Group II of longer leaf blade and intermediate texture. However, current taxonomical nomenclature of zoysiagrasses may need to be discussed and much simplified. These results may be applied to breeding of finer textured zoysiagrass varieties in Korea.
Figures & Tables
Fig. 1. Dendrogram of 17 medium-fine type zoysiagrasses from 3 Southeast Asian countries and Kagoshima, Japan and 2 Korean fine type zoysiagrasses by using 5 morphological leaf characteristics and SPSS cluster analysis of Ward Method. Averaged morphological data by Groups are summarized in Table 3.
