A subterranean clover core collection of 97 accessions has been developed using eco-geographical, agro-morphological and Simple Sequence Repeat molecular data, which captures almost 80% of the diversity of subterranean clover (Nichols et al. 2013; K. Ghamkhar et al. 2015). The subterranean clover core collection was considered from about 9,657 accessions held initially at the Australian Trifolium Genetic Resource Centre and now relocated to the Australian Pastures Genebank.

The subterranean clover core collection has been used to examine morphological diversity within this species (Abdi et al. 2020). The development of a core collection for subterranean clover will allow more efficient utilization of the total collection and represents a primary source for the breeding of new traits and selection of parents for future breeding and selection.

• Abdi A.I., Nichols P.G.H., Kaur P., Wintle B.J., Erskine W. (2020) Morphological diversity within a core collection of subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.): Lessons in pasture adaptation from the wild. PLoS ONE 15(1): e0223699.
• Nichols P. G. H., Foster K. J., Piano E., Pecetti L., Kaur P., Ghamkhar K., Collins W. J. (2013) Genetic improvement of subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.). 1. Germplasm, traits and future prospects. Crop and Pasture Science 64, 312-346.
• Ghamkhar, K., Nichols, P., Erskine, W., Snowball, R., Murillo, M., Appels, R., & Ryan, M. (2015). Hotspots and gaps in the world collection of subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.). Journal of Agricultural Science, 153(6), 1069–1083.