Character analysis and numerical classification in a wheat collection from Sicily

Quantitative botanical characterization of Saragolla wheat landraces from Abruzzo and Puglia Regions of Italy

“…The leucurum botanical variety, to which the Saragolla population cultivated in Italy at the beginning of the 1900s belongs (Percival, 1921;Draghetti, 1927), was also observed in 8 of the 11 Abruzzo samples. The leucurum variety together with the very similar affine variety, made up most of the S12 population from the Puglia Region and is probably the oldest Sicilian botanical variety (Porceddu et al, 1981). It could be hypothesized that it first arrived from Sicily to Puglia, the closest geographic region, and then to Abruzzo, where, over time, may have been mixed with other varieties having better characteristics of adaptability, productivity and/or qualitative traits, as was likely the case in Sicily (Porceddu et al, 1981).…”

“…A subsample of 96 plants representing each botanical variety was examined in greater depth using the following 20 morphological traits: The qualitative traits were measured using the value scale ranging of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV, 2012) test guideline, dated 28/03/ 2012. The percentage of each botanical variety within the total of morphotypes characterized, was calculated, and compared to two previous studies performed (with the same botanical classification) in Sicily (De Cillis, 1942in Porceddu et al, 1981 and Algeria (Boudour et al, 2011).…”

“…Characterization of old Italian durum wheats using agronomic and quality traits have been widely performed (Porceddu, 1976;Zeuli and Qualset, 1987;Pecetti and Annicchiarico, 1998;Fares et al, 2019), as have molecular approaches (Figliuolo et al, 2007;Mangini et al, 2017;Fiore et al, 2019). Morphological cataloguing of autochthonous wheats from North African countries (Orlov, 1923;Ducellier, 1930;Laumont and Erroux, 1961) and from Sicily (De Cillis, 1942;Porceddu et al, 1981;Perrino and Hammer, 1983) has been documented, too, but to our knowledge there have been no studies on the botanical varieties comprising the Saragolla landraces from the other Italian regions.…”

“…The morphological similarity of the current Saragolla, with the one described in Italy at the beginning of the 1900s (Percival, 1921;Draghetti, 1927), was also determined. To estimate how well diversity has been preserved, the number and types of durum wheat botanical varieties of currently cultivated Saragolla were compared to those resulting from studies performed in the Mediterranean basin, dating back to the first half of the 1900s (De Cillis, 1942in Porceddu et al, 1981Boudour et al, 2011).…”

“…Percentage botanical composition of autochthonous Saragolla wheat from 11 Abruzzo farms (S1-S11) and its comparison with the botanical composition of Saragolla from Puglia (S12) or the old durum wheats from Sicily(De Cillis, 1942in Porceddu et al, 1981 and Algeria(Boudour et al, 2011) leucurum affine leucomelan reichenbachii valenciae fastosum melanopus africanum hordeiforme murciense erythromelan alexandrinum italicum aegyptianicum apulicum niloliticum provinciale obscurum…”