II. 5. Samples of Hordeum spontaneum C. Koch emend. Bacht. from Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
F.Kh. Bakhteyev and E.M. Darevskaya, Department of Distant Hybridization, Main Botanical Garden, USSR Academy of Sciences, I27276 Moscow, I-276, USSR. "R"
As was reported (Bakhteyev, 1974), the above species is of many-sided interest. The results of some further studies are presented. These had been carried out at the Experimental Farming "Snigiri" located 50 km from Moscow in 1972-1973.
Seventy-seven specimens of Hordeum spontaneum were taken as the material to be studied. The collection was received from Prof. Ryuhei Takahashi from Japan. The specimens for the collection were explored by Dr. Sadap Sakamoto in Iran, Iraq and Turkey in 1970. General geographical regions where the seeds for the collection were explored are in latitude 34-38° north and in longitudes 38-45° east.
According to the intraspecific identification of the specimens it comprises the varieties: spontaneum, spontaneum II, spontaneum II-ischiatherum, ischnatherum, ischnatherum-proskowetzii, proskowetzii II, III and IV.
The autumn sowing of the specimens was done in August 1972. The sowings were under the usual phenologic observations in the course of their vegetation and maturation. Vegetative and generative variability was recorded in field plots. Visual examination of caryopses and their weighing were done after harvest.
Autumn development of plants in the plots proceeded after sprouting without any deviation from the standard. Examination of the plants before their winter dormancy showed not quite all sown samples to possess a rather high degree of field emergence. Records of the plants in the plots in spring after overwintering showed them to be entirely killed in 15 plots and in the other ones to survive from 7-100%. Among these specimens which survived the winter only two forms may be singled out in respect to their better winter-hardiness.
The variability of vegetative characters (the stem, the leaf) is rather significant. For instance, stem length in the plants varied from 43 to 91 cm, the number of productive stems from 2 to 39, the length and breadth of the blade ranged from 8.5 to 23.5 cm and from 7 to 14 mm correspondingly. Rather significant variation was also observed in such characters as the degree of coloration of stem nodes, intensity of waxy coating, pubescence of the blades, size and color of the auricles and the ligula.
The range in size in the spikes and the caryopses is of great interest as well. Spike length in the specimens from the collection varied from 4.5 to 11 cm, the weight of 100 grains - from 2 to 5 g, not to mention the form and color of the grain, these being also various.
The conclusion which had been drawn in the previous paper (Bakhteyev, 1974) of that involving wild barley in some breeding programs, shows promise of finding confirmation also in the given case.
Finally, the above investigations are to be regarded too as a modest response to N. I. Vavilov's call - it having been done in the discussion with R. E. Regel (1917) - on the necessity of thoroughly studying the available world diversity of forms of cultivated and wild barley.
Acknowledgments:
My deepest thanks are due to Dr. Sadao Sakamoto and Dr. Ryuhei Takahashi
for their kindly sending the author the collection of Hordeum spontaneum
C. Kock emed. Bacht.
References:
Bakhteyev, F.Kh. 1974. The Front-Asian Collection of Hordeum spontaneum
C. Koch emend. Bacht. under the conditions of Podmoscowje. Z. Pflanzenzuchtung,
72:95-100.
Regel, R.E. 1917. To the problems of origin of cultivated barley. Bull. Appl. Botany, 7-10 (104), 591-611. (In Russian).
Vavilov, N.I. 1917. Some observations to the paper of R.E. Regel "To the problem of origin of cultivated barley." Bull. Appl. Botany, 7-10 (104), 609-611. (In Russian).