Characterization of purple elephant grass in the tropical zone of Babahoyo, Ecuador

Abstract

This research aims to morphologically describe the “purple” king grass with its English name King Grass (Pennisetum purpureum), in the Babahoyo canton in tropical Ecuador. It was taken as a basis of analysis of morphological diversity of 16 individuals in the study area in Babahoyo province of Los Ríos. For the evaluation of the phenotypic characteristics of the king grass, characterizers used in other studies of the same nature were adapted, being possible to describe each individual phenotypically from a set of qualitative and quantitative data. The present characterization research showed no phenotypic differences in the ecotypes subjected to the evaluation of “purple” king grass (P. purpureum) in the tropical zone of the Babahoyo canton. The variables evaluated exceeded a CV > to 50%, indicating that individuals with each other have little variability. According to the results obtained in the correlation coefficient, it was possible to determine the existence of a direct relationship between some of the variables evaluated, such as the weight of the leaf with the height of the plant with a value of 0.63; Similarly, an existing relationship between the width of the leaf with stem diameter was evidenced with a value of 0.59 of the correlation coefficient. Among other data analyzed, a strong relationship between dry and wet weight is also shown with a value of 0.92 among the evaluated variables.