Fifteen intra specific hybrids and two cultivars of elephant grass were evaluated in a randomized block design with four replicates. The experiment was carried out at the Forage Production Section of LZNA/CCTA of Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense, Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, from February/95 to December/97, resulting on 12 harvests. The materials were evaluated for total dry matter (DM) production, dry season production, contribution of dry season to total annual production, percentage of leaves, height (m), diameter of stem at the base (mm) and number of tillers per meter. Except for clones CNPGL 91: F28-1, F01-2, F13-2, F10-2 and the Mineiro cultivar, all of them were satisfactory for total dry matter (DM) production, while DM production during the dry season, contribution of dry season to total annual production and percentage of leaves, presented no significant differences among clones. Multivariate analysis indicated the superiority of group 2 (Pioneiro e CNPGL 91 F27-5) and 5 (CNPGL 91 F25-3 e CNPGL 91 F06-3) to total DM production, consisting on divergent and highly adapted groups in Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ. The variables: diameter of stem, plant height in cutting at wet season and plant height in cutting an dry season were the most important in order to explain the dispersion of clones in bidimensional space.
canonic variables; dry matter; leaf proportion; Mahalanobis generalized distance; productivity; Tocher optimization method
