Adaptation of Chloris gayana to Abiotic Stress Conditions: A Review

Chloris gayana Kunth is a cultivated forage with worldwide distribution, based on its wide environmental adaptability. This review addresses some of the recent findings on C. gayana abiotic stress tolerance resulting from field or controlled conditions trials, focusing on salinity and alkalinity, drought, heat, and water excess. Management of the species under restraining environments is considered—a topic that most published information has concentrated on since a comprehensive review that was published in 2004. The main novel findings since then refer to the growing relevance role C. gayana is adopting in saline and alkaline soil amelioration, either through its association with mycorrhizal fungi or with trees in silvopastoral systems. This key trend is highlighted as a promising area for the development of sustainable production practices. Research gaps are identified. Among them, the development of standardized methodology guidelines for cultivar evaluation to guide adoption decisions and breeding efforts to improve its nutritive value under stress conditions. Tools for molecular intervention of the species that have become available since the previous reviews are also mentioned.