The 10 accessions of Chloris gayana in this subset showed useful levels of short-term drought tolerance during characterization in Ethiopia in 2008 but should be further evaluated across seasons and in multi-locational experiments.

The 10 were among a collection of 62 C. gayana accessions from the ILRI genebank that were studied, using a set of 30 morphological, 4 phenological and 8 agronomic traits to assess diversity within the collection and to assess the ability of these C. gayana accessions to maintain productivity under drought stress. The screened collection proved to be highly diverse in terms of morphology and phenology, agronomic potential and drought response. Six morphological groups were described which differ in many characteristics, ranging from general growth habit to specific inflorescence parameters.