Table 1 Phenotypic characteristics of grazing tolerant and intolerant alfalfa plants.

From: Transcriptome responses in alfalfa associated with tolerance to intensive animal grazing

Trait

Grazing Tolerant Plants n = 10

Grazing Intolerant Plants n = 10

Group Difference

Sample mean

Standard deviation

Sample mean

Standard deviation

P-value

Shoot canopy area (cm2)

9669.70

5890.62

602.60

249.45

8.8 × 10−4

Basal plant diameter (cm)

13.95

2.26

7.45

1.57

1.3 × 10−6

Shoot height (cm)

79.70

9.90

30.80

11.25

6.5 × 10−9

Stem number

72.70

14.77

23.00

12.12

2.2 × 10−7

  1. All plants were continuously grazed by sheep during 2011. In 2012, sheep grazing was delayed until the fourth of July to allow measurements of the traits listed above. The P-values were computed by the Welch two-sample t-test. Differences in all four traits between the tolerant and intolerant plants are statistically significantly.