ABSTRACT
Combarbalá-INIA, an early flowering cultivar of burr medic (Medicago polymorpha L.) for Mediterranean dryland areas

Alejandro del Pozo L.1, Carlos Ovalle M.2, Julia Avendaño R.3, Teresa Aravena3 y M. Elena Díaz3
 

Combarbalá-INIA is a new cultivar of burr medic (Medicago polymorpha L.), selected from a great number of accessions collected in Chile, between La Serena (29º 55’ lat. S) and Temuco (38º 47’ lat. S). It is an annual forage legume, precocious (71-83 days from emergence to first flowering), adequate for dryland areas of the arid, semiarid and subhumid Mediterranean zones, gbetween the IV and VI Regions of Chile. It has prostrate growth, yellow flowers and spineless pods. It is well adapted to ley farming systems, since it produces a large number of hard seeds. Dry matter production and seed yield was greater than Australian cultivars of burr medic available in the market.

Keywords: Mediterranean climate, Chile forage legume, annual medic, dry matter, seed yield, rotation.
1 Universidad de Concepción, Facultad de Agronomía, Casilla 537, Chillán, Chile. E-mail: adelpozo@udec.cl.
2 Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Centro Regional de Investigación Quilamapu, Casilla 426, Chillán , Chile. E-mail: covalle@inia.cl.
3 Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Centro Experimental Cauquenes, Casilla 165, Cauquenes, Chile.