ABSTRACT
The greatest diversity of tropical forage legume germplasm is in the American tropics. While native legume populations have undoubtedly contributed to forage for livestock, the common situation is for natural legume populations in tropical America to be more prevalent outside pastures than within them. Beginning with commercial use of the genus Stylosanthes in the 1930s, 1 Australia has led in the initial adoption and, somewhat in reverse, subsequently has led in collection, assessment, and evaluation of diverse tropical legume germplasm. During the last half of the 20th century, numerous tropical forage legume cultivars were developed. The initial important cultivars, which were subsequently distributed throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world, were developed in Australia. This tropical forage legume cultivar development consisted primarily of the selection and commercialization of naturally occurring genotypes with very limited contribution from plant breeding. 2
