WinRHIZO technology for measuring morphological traits of bermudagrass stolons

WinRHIZO, a root-measuring system, may provide an alternative, reliable, and fast method to analyze stolon morphology of grass species. This study evaluated the possibility to use WinRHIZO technology to measure total length and average diameter of bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.] stolons. The length and diameter of 70 stolons collected from four turftype cultivars and a wild bermudagrass were measured with a ruler (length) and caliper (diameter), and using WinRHIZO technology, a scanner-based image analysis system. The scanned length closely predicted the manually measured one and can be successfully used to determine stolon length in samples with a significant amount of biomass. WinRHIZO technology overestimated diameter values when the whole stolon was scanned, while the diameter prediction was more precise when nodes were removed and only internodes were measured.