Growth comparison of some indigenous and exotic grasses at germination and seedling stage.

2 Abstract: The present study was conducted to determine the growth comparison of some indigenous range grasses in the field area of department of Forestry, Range Management and Wildlife, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. Ten range grasses, Cenchrus ciliarus, Chloris gayana, Bothriochloa pertursa, Panicum maximum, Panicum antidotale, Pennisetum purpureum, Eragrostis superba, Festuca arundinacea, Lymus codensatus, Vetiveria zizynoides were evaluated with respect to their morphological and growth characteristics. B. pertursa gained maximum germination at stage 1 (40.89%) followed by stage 2 (30.22%), stage 3 (14.22%) and minimum germination was recorded at stage 4 (4.44%), respectively. Treatment means showed that among all grasses species, maximum no. of leaves per plant was gained by B. pertusa (4.08), while, the minimum number of leaves per plant was reported in V. zizynoides (3.38) which are statistically significant. The maximum plant leaf length was calculated at stage 4 (4.34 cm) followed by stage 3 (3.78 cm) and stage 2 (3.16 cm), whereas minimum was at stage 1 (2.52 cm), respectively. The results regarding to shoot length showed that B. pertursa gained maximum shoot length at stage 4 (7.333 cm) and minimum shoot length was at stage 1 (3.26 cm). Similarly, plant root lengths taken at different stages were also highly significant. The maximum plant root length was gained at stage 4 followed by stage 3 and stage 2 whereas minimum at stage 1 in descending order respectively. B. pertursa gained maximum total plant height at stage 4 (14.39 cm) followed by stage 3 (11.68 cm), stage 2 (10.12 cm) whereas, the minimum total plant height was recorded at stage 1 (7.84 cm) in descending order respectively.