Registration of ‘Colony’ Lowland Switchgrass

All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or trans mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Permission for printing and for reprinting the material contained herein has been obtained by the publisher. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) has received considerable attention as a biomass crop for potential conversion to ethanol. Recent assessment of switchgrass, relative to its potential as a long-term biomass source, has been made with associated agronomic, physiological, and genetic considerations (McLaughlin and Kszos, 2005). When assessing agronomic aspects such as land suitability, seeding rate, and nitrogen fertilizer relative to profi t potential, breakeven prices were found to be sensitive to dry matter (DM) yield and nitrogen (N)-fertilizer and fuel prices (Mooney et al., 2009). Addressing the yield aspect, Sanderson et al. (1996) noted that the lowland ecotypes in the lower United States were generally superior to the upland ecotypes, and in their study the cultivar ‘Alamo’ was their cultivar of choice because of its consistently greater yield of dry matter and its wider degree of adaptability. In the conversion of biomass to ethanol, biomass with greater cellulose and lesser lignin content is favored, Registration of ‘Colony’ Lowland Switchgrass