Morphological traits of stem to indirect selection of resistance to lodging in Avena sativa L

The runout of newly cultivated areas in the world without recurring to the deforestation, demand a necessity to improve yield to sustain a growth population which demands each time more food. To avoid that is necessary to solve the main issues which cause crop productivity reduction, such as lodging which causes yield reduction in many major crops such as wheat, barley, rice and oat. In this sense, a study with eight cultivars evaluated morphological traits of the stem as crown diameter, internal and external diameter of the first four basal internodes, the length of internodes, peduncle and panicle, plant height, and also lodging resistance factor (cLr), green and dry panicle matter. The diameter of the crown does not show differences among the cultivars, the morphological characters which showed correlation and relative contribution with cLr were the internal and external internodes diameters, showing their capacity to be one of morphological traits of the stem to an indirect selection of resistance to lodging in Avena sativa L. The length did not show a good correlation with lodging, probably due to the fact that this trait was the focus of breeders for many years, reaching the plateau, demanding focus in other traits to avoid lodging such as interna and external diameter of internodes. The cultivar URS Brava and IPR Afrodite demonstrated to be a source of lodging resistance in oat.