The morphogenesis of individual tillers is necessary to know in order to understand a forage ecossistem. The present work was carried out aiming to determine the management effect of intensity and frequency of burns and grazing on the Andropogon lateralis Nees leaf growth rate. Evaluations were performed during spring of 1997 in an area of natural grassland belonging to the Department of Animal Science of Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, RS, Brazil. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomised block design. Burns treatments were carried out on the grazing excluded area, with levels of initial available dry matter in May of 1996 (IA), 2.860, 2.580, 5.000, 5.690 e 6.480kg of dry matter (DM)/ha. The burns were realized in September of 1996 and May of 1997. The whole experimental area was burned in August of 1995. The leaf growth was evaluated in 330 A. lateralis labelled tillers and determinated by measurements of green leaf length. Higher leaf elongation (LE) was observed in the annually burned treatment with IA of 6.480kg of DM/ha, without differing of the treatments burned annually with IA of 5.690kg of DM/ha and with biennial burn. A. lateralis demonstrated to be a species adapted to grazing.
Labelled tiller; elongation rate; phyllochron; leaf lifespan; number of green leaves
