African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (3), pp. 241-243, March 2005          
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2005 Academic Journals

Short Communication

Photoperiodism in Digitaria exilis (Kipp) Stapf accessions

A.A. Aliero¹ and J.A. Morakinyo²*

¹Dept. of Biological Sciences, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Nigeria.

²Dept. of Biological Sciences, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author.  E-mail: aaaliero@yahoo.com.

 Accepted February 17, 2005

Three varieties of Digitaria exilis namely, white mbulus, jakashale and red dapys were grown in planting chamber and the effect of photoperiod on flowering was investigated. The photoperiods were eleven, twelve and thirteen hours. Highly significant differences (p<0.01) were recorded for the number of days to flowering as affected by photoperiods. The interaction between the photoperiods and varieties was also found to be significant (p<0.01). The results also show that white mbulus is a short day plant while Jakashale is day length neutral. Jakashale could therefore be a source of useful genes for improvement of “acha” for an all year round production.

Key words: Digitaria exilis, photoperiods, flowering.