Miscanthus - Industrial Crops: Breeding for BioEnergy and Bioproducts - page 45

Fig. 3.1 Miscanthus giganteus

This chapter describes the breeding of Miscanthus species, their characteristics
and their taxonomy relationship, genetic resources, and progress of genetic
improvement through conventional and molecular breeding.

Taxonomy and Domestication

The taxonomy of the genus Miscanthus was studied initially in 1855 by Andersson
[ 34 ], thereafter followed by the works of Honda [ 35 ], Adati [ 36 ], Hirayoshi
et al. [ 37 - 40 ], and Adati and Shiotani [ 41 ] in Japan. In general, the taxonomy of
the genus is complex and confusing because of the high level of diversity. However,
a wide range of species, hybrids, and cultivars have been identified. The cytogenetic
and phylogenetic studies combined distinguished a group of 14-20 species recog-
nized by most horticultural organizations such as the Royal Horticultural Society
and members of the International Botanical Congress [ 42 ]. On the basis of the
description of Clayton and Renvoize [ 43 ] and Hodkinson et al. [ 44 ], Miscanthus
was classified to the Poaceae family, in a subfamily of Panicoideae placed in the
tribe of Andropogoneae [ 45 , 46 ].
The genus Miscanthus is divided into three sections: Eumiscanthus Honda,
Triarrhena (Maxim.) Honda, and Kariyasua Ohwi (Table 3.1 ). Each section con-
tains several species found in Japan [ 36 , 41 ].
Traditionally, the genus Miscanthus showed attractive features for domestic use
such as livestock feed, green manure, as well as roof materials for traditional houses
in Japan (Fig. 3.2 ). Stewart et al. [ 47 ] reviewed the ecology of M. sinensis in Japan.
Natural and seminatural grasslands in Japan, which historically comprised 10 % of