Biological characteristics and productivity of Leymus secalinus ‘Yanbei’ in Loess plateau

This study was conducted to evaluate new lines of Leymus secalinus ‘Yanbei’ for their production performance and biological characteristics. Wild L. secalinus and L. chinensis ‘Nongjing No.4’ were selected as controls, and various comparison experiments were conducted for 3 years at the experimental site of Shanxi Agricultural University (Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine experimental station at the Practaculture Science experimental site), Taigu County, Shanxi Province. The results showed that the yield of L. secalinus ‘Yanbei’ was the highest, with an average yield of 10 125 kg∙ha^–1 in 3 years and 109 cm in the vegetative shoot, which was significantly higher than that of other varieties (P < 0.05). Seed production was 145 kg∙ha^–1, which was 56.4% higher than the wild species. L. secalinus ‘Yanbei’ showed the longest leaf length and protein content (9.46%). All test indices were analyzed using the grey relational degree method. The characteristics of the test varieties were: L. secalinus ‘Yanbei’ > wild L. secalinus ‘Youyu’ > wild L. secalinus ‘Hunyuan’ > L. chinensis ‘Nongjing No.4’.