Love and Craig: Fertile Wheat-Rye Hybrids 



205 



The variety Dawson's Golden Chaff 

 was crossed with common rye and 

 from this cross one plant was obtained. 

 This Fi plant gave every indication 

 that it was a wheat-rye hybrid. It 

 had a few awns develop particularly at 

 the tip of the head. The glumes were 

 brown and intermediate between those 

 of wheat and rye. They were keeled 

 more like rye and ciliate. There was 

 only a slight pubescence of the peduncle. 

 While in some wheat-rye hybrids this 

 is very pronounced, other hybrids have 

 been obtained which are not at all 

 pubescent. 



This hybrid plant was not com- 

 pletely fertile but one seed was obtained 

 which produced a plant in the following 

 generation. The parent heads and a 

 head from each of the Fi and F2 plants are 

 shown in frontispiece. The F2 head was 

 much like Fi, but more awns developed. 

 It showed in many ways its rye parent- 

 age. The glumes were sharply keeled 

 and ciliate. More awns developed than 

 in the case of the Fi type although this 

 plant was not as fully awned as rye. 

 The peduncle was not pubescent at all. 

 Only one viable seed was obtained from 

 this plant. This seed produced a healthy 

 plant the following generation. This 

 plant in appearance was more wheat- 

 like than either the Fi or F2 and pro- 

 duced many seed. It did not show its 

 hybrid nature to any great extent so far 

 as the head characters are concerned. 



A number of seed were sown from 

 this plant and an F^ generation was 

 grown. The plants resulting from these 

 seed were very variable so far as awns, 

 color of chaff and color of kernel are 

 concerned. The color of chaff, beards 

 and color of kernel seemed to all follow 

 a simple Medelian ratio of 3:1, thus 

 indicating that segregation in wheat- 

 rye hybrids occurs the same as when 

 two varieties of wheat are crossed. It 

 should be noted that the color of ker- 

 nel of the wheat parent was white, so 

 that any color must have come from the 

 rye. The heads are all more like wheat 

 than they are like rye, yet in some 

 respects they indicate their hybrid ori- 

 gin. A number of these heads are shown 

 m Figs. 1-2, Nos. 2-10. Head No. 39 



was much like rye in regard to the awn 

 development and ciliated glumes. It is 

 evident that there is considerable vari- 

 ation as to the degree of sterility found. 

 Certain ones are fully fertile while others 

 are nearly sterile, for example Nos. 43 

 and 47 (Fig. 9). 



The kernels showed some variation 

 and seemed from their shapes to show 

 differences that are not common among 

 wheat hybrids. Most of these kernel 

 types are shown in Figs. 2 and 3, Nos. 11 

 and 12. In regard to the general appear- 

 ance of the plants many of them showed 

 their hybrid nature by the color of 

 the stems and certain likenesses to rye. 

 This was so apparent that a visitor on 

 looking over the cultures in the green- 

 house remarked on their rye-like nature 

 without knowing what the series was. 

 None of the plants had the pubescent 

 peduncle as the Fi did, but as this 

 pubescence was lacking in F2 these F4 

 plants would not be expected to pos- 

 sess this pubescence. Since known Fi 

 wheat-rye hybrids occur without the 

 pubescence it is not a certain criterion of 

 a wheat-rye hybrid that it was formerly 

 thought to be. 



Some of these F4 families have been 

 carried further and they continue to 

 produce plants that, so far as the 

 heads are concerned, are more wheat-like 

 in their nature, yet so far as the plant 

 is concerned show some resemblance 

 to rye. 



WINTER HARDINESS 



Some of these hybrids are now being 

 tested under field conditions to deter- 

 mine whether they may have inherited 

 any of the winter hardiness of rye. If 

 it is possible to obtain such a plant with 

 the good qualities of wheat, one would 

 be able to sow later than is now done and 

 still obtain a good stand. The im- 

 portance of this is self-evident and 

 would mean much to wheat growing 

 areas where winter killing is severe. 



From these results it seems without 

 doubt that we have a fertile wheat -rye 

 hybrid and that the seed which devel- 

 oped on the Fi plant was the result of 

 self-fertilization and not a result of a 

 backcrossing with wheat or rye. If 



