The chlorophyll concentration is an indicator of the sunlight and nutrients assimilator system efficiency. Thus, it can be used to estimate a plant forage potential. Nowadays, there are portable devices to estimate differences on chlorophyll concentration between genotypes of the same species easily. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the chlorophyll concentration index (CCI) and the biomass production (BP) and the leaf area (LA) of the following sideoats grama grass genotypes: Vaughn, Niner, El Reno, E-689 and E-592. Measurements of CCI, BP and LA were performed weekly during 77 days on five samples from each genotype at each measurement event. Data were analyzed through the GLM and PROC CORR procedures of the statics program SAS. There were differences on LA (P<0.01), BP (P<0.05) and CCI (P<0.001), where the genotype E-689 presented the highest values. BP and LA were correlated whit CCI (R=0.65 and 0.82, respectively). The coefficient of determination (R2) ranged from 0.64 to 0.96 on PB and CCI, while for LA and CCI R2 ranged from 0.70 to 0.97. Based on the results of BP, LA and CCI, it is inferred that the genotype E-689 has the highest forage and quality potential. The differences found for BP and LA appear to be determined by CCI. Given that, the CCI could be considered in future studies to select sideoats grama grass genotypes with a high forage and quality potential.
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