Morphological Characterization of Brachypodium distachyon (L.) P. Beauv. Natural Populations Collected from Different Geographical Regions of Turkey

Abstract

Brachypodium distachyon is a new model plant species for cool season grasses. In this study, 48 natural B. distachyon populations from the collection stored at Namik Kemal University, Department of Field Crops; which were collected from different geographic regions of Turkey were used. Seventeen morphological characters and their relationship with altitude were investigated in the study. Based on the result of study, average properties were 24.7 cm for plant height, 5.6 cm for length of flag leaf, 4.5 mm for width of flag leaf, 4.5 g for biomass weigth (except the root), 34 for spike number per stem, 4 for number of stem without spike, 111 for number of spikelet per plant, 372 for number of seed per plant, 1.95 g for seed weight per plant, and 5.22 g for the thousand kernel weight. Additionally, average duration for seed germination, heading and anthesis were determined to be 15, 125, and 136 days respectively. It was determined that most of the plants had green colour, feathered structure and erect forms. But, semi-erect and even prostrate forms were also observed in some populations. All the data was subjected to principle component analysis. The results of the analysis indicate that B. distachyon collection used in this study have a tremendous morphological variation. Based on the results, duration of the germination had a negative correlation with increasing altitude while thousand kernel weight and plant appearance had a positive correlation.