TABLE 1.

Characteristics of the four different clusters found within the collection of M. maximus.

Cluster	Number of accessions	Shoot biomass (g dry matter ⋅ pot–1)	NR (mg N-NO3 ⋅ kg soil–1 ⋅ day–1	CP (%)	N uptake (mg N ⋅ pot–1)	IVDMD (%)	NDF (%)	ADF (%)
1	42	15.3 ± 3.3a	6.3 ± 0.6a	5.9 ± 0.6c	143.5 ± 31.9a	65.9 ± 1.6c	61.7 ± 1.5a	30.2 ± 1.5a
2	6	19.1 ± 2b	9.5 ± 0.6b	5.8 ± 0.4bc	180.7 ± 26.9b	63.3 ± 2.6a	63.1 ± 1.9ab	31.5 ± 2ab
3	19	23.5 ± 3.1c	6.1 ± 0.9a	5.3 ± 0.6ab	200.2 ± 30.3b	65.5 ± 1.6bc	63.7 ± 1.2b	32.1 ± 1.2b
4	52	17 ± 1.9b	6.5 ± 0.6a	4.9 ± 0.5a	135.2 ± 16.7a	64.7 ± 1.5ab	63.8 ± 1.1b	32.8 ± 1.4b

NR, nitrification rates, CP, crude protein, IVDMD, in vitro dry matter digestibility, ADF, acid detergent fiber, NDF, neutral detergent fiber. Different letters denote statistical differences according to analysis of variance and Tukey HSD test (α = 0.05). Bold numbers indicate the most desirable value for each trait within the clusters.