Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Pullman, Washington » Grain Legume Genetics Physiology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #77445
Title: LENTIL ADAPTATIONS TO HIGHLAND WINTER-SOWN ENVIRONMENTS IN WEST ASIA AND NORTH AFRICA

Author
item ERSKINE, WILLIAM - ICARDA SYRIA
item Muehlbauer, Frederick

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/12/1994
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Adaptation of the lentil crop to cold highland areas throughout the world is dependent on sufficient tolerance or resistance to cold temperatures during winter and appropriate flowering dates in the spring. In this paper, the authors define a method of matching germplasm of lentil to the climatic conditions of highland areas targeted for lentil production. Time to flowering and maturity are considered as critical to successful production in such areas and is accurately predicted from a model described in the paper. Resistance to disease is also a critical factor but as yet not well understood. The paper provides information on adaptation of the lentil to cold stressed areas and should be of interest to lentil researchers.

Technical Abstract: In West Asia lentil is spring-sown at elevations above ca. 800 m, but late autumn sowing of cultivars with winter hardiness yields more than spring sown lentil. In North Africa at equivalent elevations, the crop is winter-sown. Lentil adaptation to highland late autumn-sowing depends on matching phenology to climate, winter-hardiness and disease resistance. Climatic data were analyzed from three representative Anatolian sites to determine safe windows for sowing and emergence in autumn and flowering in spring; avoiding the need of a costly suite of date of sowing trials. Superimposition of phenology model using a range of germplasm emphasized the importance of photoperiodic sensitivity for adaptation to highland late autumn/winter sowing. The response to selection for winter hardiness in the fields is reviewed and attention drawn to the winter-hardiness within Lens culinaris ssp. orientalis. Late autumn-sowing exposes the crop to an extended period of cool and moist conditions and, hence, a range of seedborne, seedling and foliar pathogens. Resistance to such pathogens is an important understudied aspect of lentil adaptation to highland environments.