Abstract:
The research carried out at the
Gene Bank in Suceava, Northern Romania,
aimed to highlight the phenotypic variability
of the germplasm of Avena spp. For this
purpose, the morpho-productive traits and
resistance to diseases, pests and weeds were
analysed. Productivity, diseases and pests,
days to heading and days to maturity
descriptors of 46 Avena spp. genotypes
(naked and hulled oat) with different
biological statuses (36 local populations,
10 cultivars), were evaluated by testing in
intercropping experiments with small grain
cereals and grain legumes. The unidirectional
ANOVA analysis generated values that
allowed the elaboration of a hierarchy of
heterogeneity in the hulled local populations,
for some of the analysed characters (one
thousand seeds weight/genotype, degree of
attack by Puccinia coronata and Oulema
melanopa and days to maturity) and these
were less in naked forms. There was a high
competition of Avena species, regarding
weeds in small grain cereal variants and
potentially beneficial for nitrogen symbiotic
fixation by increasing naked and hulled local
oat population productivity in intercropping
with fava bean. The Euclidean distance
classification of the oat genotypes
investigated in the dendrogram distinguished
the generated groups, indicating the
maximum distance in cluster IV. With high
heterogeneity of productivity traits, better
resistance to disease and pests, and shorter
maturity, members of this cluster could be
used to develop genetic mixture programs.
