Assessment of morpho-anatomical traits of red fescue (Festuca rubra L.) germplasm differing in origin

Thirty-eight accessions of red fescue (Festuca rubra L.), collected from different bioclimatic regions of Ukraine and Latvia, were evaluated for 16 quantitative traits in the Central Lowland of Lithuania. The research was aimed to evaluate morpho-anatomical traits of the populations and reveal the relationship with their geographic origin. The data collected indicated that F. rubra populations differing in origin were quite similar in their morphology. However, significant differences in length of lemma, flag and stem leaf laminas, number of leaf ribs, veins and sclerenchyma bundles were established between the Ukrainian and Latvian populations. Moreover, a greater variation of morpho-anatomical traits was noted for the populations from southern part of F. rubra distribution range. Principal component analysis enabled us to differentiate 7 most promising populations (of which 6 were from Ukraine) based on the most important pre-breeding traits such as seed number per plant and plant height.