Breeding a late‐flowering tetraploid red clover for New Zealand

Colchicine treatment of 4‐ to 5‐day‐old seedlings was the most successful of the treatments used to induce tetraploids of red clover ( Trifolium pratense L.). In the initial stages pollen size was definitive in detecting tetraploid plants. In later generations, in addition to chromosome counts, flower size, leaf size, and seed size were also used in determining tetraploid plants. The breeding procedure used throughout all generations after induction was maternal line selection, and emphasis in selection was for vigorous, productive, disease‐resistant, and persistent plants.