LIGULE*: An evaluation of indigenous perennial grasses for dryland salinity management in south-eastern Australia - 1. A base germplasm collection

This paper reports on the collection phase of a research program which aime d to identify Australian native grasses that may be useful for pastoral pur poses and for controlling land degradation on hill-lands in the high (>500 mm) rainfall zone of south-eastern Australia. Live plants of 37 target spec ies were collected along a number of transects, and at specific locations, in New South Wales and Victoria. The collection sites were generally along public roads, and were chosen for their vegetation diversity. Each collecti on site was marked on a 1:250000 topographic map, and detailed notes were t aken of the native vegetation, geology, soil types, land use, and other fea tures. Surface (0-10 cm) soil samples were collected at most sites and anal ysed for phosphorus, pH CaCl2, electrical conductivity, and particle size d istribution. A total of 807 accessions were collected from 210 locations. At most collec tion sites, soils were acidic (median pH 5.6); soil phosphorus (Olsen) was in the low range (<8.5 mg/kg); and the target genera occurred with a low fr equency (half of the sites yielded 3 accessions or less). Although genera c ollected in the study could be ranked on the basis of the mean pH of their collection sites, they all tolerated a considerable soil pH range (of about 2-5 pH units). Allowing root and shoot growth to recommence by growing col lected plants for a short period in coarse sand considerably improved estab lishment success. Accessions collected in this study will be further evalua ted.