Exploiting the morphological and phenological diversity in barley landraces of Iran

Barley is one the most widely cultivated crop in marginal environments which is often exposed to abiotic stresses. It seems that genetic diversity in adaptive characters is the key factor for adaptation to diverse environments. In this research diversity of 500 landraces of Hordeum vulgare, in barley germplasm collection of National Plant Gene Bank of Iran (NPGBI) collected from various climatic zones were evaluated for morphological and phenological traits. The experiment was held in the research field of Seed and Plant Improvement Institute, Karaj, Iran. Traits were measured based on guidelines of Bioversity International. One-way analysis of variance indicated that, traits were significantly different between winter, facultative and spring growth types. Based on mean comparison, winter type landraces had longer growth phase (higher values in days to spike emergence and flowering). Winter and facultative landraces had more values in plant height (88.92 and 86.76 cm respectively) and Grain yield was higher in winter barley landraces. The results of multivariate analysis indicated that two-row landraces had higher kernel weight and spike length than six-row landraces, which seems to be a moderator of adverse environmental factors on yield production. The grain yield in two-row and six-row barley was not significantly different. The results in this study indicated that two-row barley landraces were generally spring type and six-row landraces had a winter type. Xerothermic coefficient of two-row barley landraces was significantly lower than six-row types, therefore it can be assumed that six-row landraces were mostly from hot and dry areas.