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Festuca apennina × F. pratensis triploid hybrids exceed their parents in adaptation to broad-environmental conditions

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Abstract

Occurrence of Festuca apennina De Not. (4 × Fape), F. pratensis Huds. (2 × Fp) and the triploid, sterile hybrid F. apennina × F. pratensis (3 × Fape × Fp) was studied in 12 regions of the Swiss Alps. In total, 1908 plants were sampled in elevational strata scaled by 50 m between 850 and 2000 m a.s.l., and accompanying vegetation was assessed for each sampling point. The hybrid 3 × Fape × Fp was more frequent and more dominant than both parental species around 1400 m, and had a wider elevational distribution than 2 × Fp and 4 × Fape, which were confined to lower and higher elevation, respectively. As evidenced by their preferred accompanying species, 2 × Fp colonizes dryer, nutrient poorer environments than 4 × Fape which clearly prefers wet and nutrient rich environments. On the contrary, 3 × Fape × Fp thrives similarly well in both environments. The ability to reach an important biomass proportion in a sward, and the wide environmental adaptation of 3 × Fape × Fp is favored by its capacity to strongly expand by rhizomes. A single genotype of 3 × Fape × Fp was found to colonize an entire field of 2.3 ha with a maximum distance between clonal plants of 304 m. It is concluded that 3 × Fape × Fp is a potentially valuable pasture plant for use at higher altitudes, but it may reduce biodiversity via suppressing less competitive plant species.

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Funding

The survey of occurrence of Festuca ploidy levels was funded as 06NAP-P51 by the programme NAP PGREL (Nationaler Aktionsplan zur Erhaltung und nachhaltigen Nutzung der pflanzengenetischen Ressourcen für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft) of the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture. This research was partially funded by the Czech Science Foundation (grant awards 20-10019S) and by the European Regional Development Fund OPVVV project “Plants as a tool for sustainable development” number CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000827 supporting Excellent Research at CRH. We thank the Fodder Crop Breeding group of Agroscope for letting us use their facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Langwiesstrasse 14, CH-8050, Zurich, Switzerland

    Beat Boller

  2. Forage Production and Grassland Systems, Reckenholzstrasse 191, 8046, Zürich, Switzerland

    Manuel K. Schneider

  3. Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zürich, CH-8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Cheng Zhao

  4. Institute of Experimental Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, Centre of the Region Haná for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Šlechtitelů 31, 77900, Olomouc, Czech Republic

    Jan Bartoš, Joanna Majka & David Kopecky

  5. Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Strzeszynska 34, 60-479, Poznan, Poland

    Joanna Majka

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  1. Beat Boller
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Contributions

BB designed the investigation and sampled the specimens together with CZ, DK and JM conducted flow cytometry measurements, DK and JB analyzed clonality using Diversity Arrays Technology, MS and CZ performed statistical analyses, BB led the writing, all co-authors revised the manuscript critically and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to David Kopecky.

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Supplementary file1 (DOCX 30586 KB)

Video showing grazing avoidance of 3x FapexFp by a cow in the field Kamor-Loch with uniquely 3x plants. The cow picks small herbs and grasses from the bottom of the canopy even between the tall 3x FapexFp plants (MP4 124796 kb)

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Boller, B., Schneider, M.K., Zhao, C. et al. Festuca apennina × F. pratensis triploid hybrids exceed their parents in adaptation to broad-environmental conditions. Alp Botany 133, 43–55 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00035-022-00290-1

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