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THE HORDEUM VIOLACEUM COMPLEX OF IRAN
Author(s) -
Dewey Douglas R.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
american journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.218
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1537-2197
pISSN - 0002-9122
DOI - 10.1002/j.1537-2197.1979.tb06210.x
Subject(s) - biology , ploidy , botany , taxon , hordeum , chromosome , perennial plant , chromosome number , hordeum vulgare , poaceae , karyotype , genetics , gene
Fifty‐seven Iranian collections of Hordeum violaceum Boiss. & Huet, a perennial forage grass, contained diploid (2 n = 14), tetraploid (2 n = 28), and hexaploid (2 n = 42) chromosome races. All collections came from moderate to high elevations in the Alborz and Zagros mountains and adjacent plateau areas of Iran. Each chromosome race had a discrete distribution, and the hexaploids were the most widespread. The diploids were cytologically regular, except for a chromosome interchange that occurred in about half of the plants. The tetraploids and hexaploids behaved cytologically as autopolyploids. The hexaploids were taller, coarser and later‐flowering than the diploids and tetraploids, and they had fewer but thicker culms and larger seeds. The tetraploids were the leafiest and most productive, making them the most desirable from an agronomic standpoint. All races were more or less self‐sterile, a characteristic that sets H. violaceum apart from most other Hordeum species. The taxonomic status of H. violaceum and its closest relatives, H. turkestanicum Nevski and H. brevisubulatum Link, is uncertain because of close morphological similarities and the occurrence of chromosome races in each taxon.