SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF SECALE CEREALE IN IRAN

Abstract

<em>Secale</em> <em>cereale</em> (rye) with its vitally importance can have a marked place in the world cereal production, particularly in North Europe. This study concerns morphology, taxonomy and cytotaxonomy of this species in Iran. Based on the evaluation of 12 qualitative and quantitative morphological characters and using phenetic analysis, it was revealed that, <em>S.</em> <em>cereale</em> occurs in Iran with two subspecies, namely, <em>cereale</em> and <em>ancestrale</em>. Our results showed that the rachis fragility could be considered as a distinctive character between the above taxa. The cytotaxonomic observations of 10 populations showed that all the Iranian <em>S. cereale</em> gene pool belongs to the diploid (2n=14) level. Only one population showed two B-chromosomes.