Abstract 138

Moore,KJ; Miller,-DA

Dep. Agron., Univ. Illinois, Chicago, IL 60680, USA.

Tropical-Agriculture,-UK. 1988, 65: 4, 337-340; 21 ref.

Five species of Brachiaria (B. ruziziensis, B, humidicola, B. brizantha, B. decumbens and B. dictyoneura) with varying numbers of accessions were screened to identify those of higher nutritive value. Significant differences in cell wall consituents and digestibility were observed both between species and between accessions within species. B. ruziziensis had the lowest NDF, ADF, cellulose and hemicellulose concn in both leaf and stem fractions and the highest digestibility of all species studied, despite having the highest leaf lignin concn. Stems were higher in cellulose and lignin and equal to or higher than leaves in hemicellulose for each species studied. Species differences were more evident in leaf than in stem compositions. Cell wall digestibility was lower in stems than in leaves for all species. Considerable variations existed in both cell wall composition and digestibility among accessions, idicating that it should be possible to select the higher quality genotypes of each species as initial materials for further improvement by breeding.