The agricultural value of awns in cereals.

Abstract

A preliminary examination of the F₂ of crosses between awnless wheats and bearded varieties at the Laboratory for Crop Husbandry, Wageningen, indicated that the bearded offspring were more vigourous and produced more ears and more grains per ear than the awnless progenies. The apparent vigour of bearded wheats was, however, due to an inexact separation of bearded and awnless types; vigourous awnless plants, homozygous for short tips on their glumes, were classified as bearded, while some of the less vigourous plants, heterozygous for bearded glumes, were taken for awnless individuals. Following accurate classification, verified by examining F₃ progenies, awns were shown to contribute 3-5% to grain yield due to photosynthetic activity, not to linkage. This conclusion was supported by comparing yields of deawned plants and bearded controls. (Abstract retrieved from CAB Abstracts by CABI’s permission)