II. 2. Glossy-eared cultivars.
P. T. Gymer, Joseph Nickerson Research Centre, Rothwell, Lincoln, United Kingdom.
I would like to draw the attention of barley geneticists to the existence of a number of European spring barley cultivars with waxless ears. These include for example the Swedish variety Feronia, the English variety Dragon, the Czech variety Rapid and the Danish variety Rosie. Feronia is one of the parents of Dragon, but we have not checked the other lines for allelism. However, crosses done with each of these cultivars give F1 plants having glossy ears, and in the F2 a 3:1 glossy:waxy segregation occurs.
According to all the descriptions of eceriferum mutants, the waxless character is always recessive. This is the opposite of our findings with these glossy-eared cultivars, and I would like to suggest that the geneticists who work with this character should add glossy-eared cultivars to their studies.