Variabilidad en caracteres morfológicos relacionados con la implantación de Desmanthus virgatus (L.) Willd. y Desmanthus paspalaceus (Lindm.) Burkart

the search for forage legumes to improve animal production is a priority in the centre-north of argentina. this study aims to determine the variability for morphological traits related with the early vegetative growth in populations of two native forage legumes, desmanthus virgatus y d. paspalaceus and analyze their field establishment in two environments. variation was found in all of the traits analyzed and useful populations were identified with a view to their incorporation into breeding programs. big fractions of the total phenotypic variation for almost all traits was due to interpopulational and intrapopulational variation. correlations among characters indicate that a simultaneous improvement is possible by means of aerial biomass without compromising reserve accumulation in roots. all populations had low field establishment rate on the two locations used. the causes of this problem are discussed in this paper.