WHEAT-RYE HYBRIDS 



Edgar A. McFadden, Brookings, S. D. 



I WAS greatly interested in the ar- 

 ticle, "Carman's Wheat-Rye Hy- 

 brids," by C. E. Leighty, which 

 appeared in the September, 1916, 

 issue of this magazine. Mr. Carman's 

 experience with wheat-rye hybrids as 

 noted in the article referred to is very 

 similar in many respects to an experi- 

 ment conducted by myself during the 

 past three years. 



During the summer of 1915, having 

 in mind the production of a hardy 

 winter wheat that would withstand the 

 severe winters of the Dakotas, I at- 

 tempted to produce some hybrids be- 

 tween wheat and rye. At that time I 

 knew nothing of Mr. Carman's experi- 

 ments with wheat-rye hybrids, bvit the 

 fact that rye was very winter-hardy 

 and a close relative of wheat led me to 

 believe that a cross between these two 

 cereals might result in a variety having 

 the hardiness of rye combined with the 

 milling qualities and other desirable 

 characteristics of wheat. 



The varieties chosen for hybridiza- 

 tion were Turkey winter wheat and 

 Swedish rye, two of the hardiest varie- 

 ties of their respective classes. The 

 flowers on nine of the wheat heads were 

 carefully emasculated, after which pol- 

 len from the rye was dusted upon the 

 stigmas. The heads were then wrapped 

 in tissue paper to protect them from 

 foreign pollen. As a result of this 

 treatment nine of the flowers pollinated 

 set seed, an average of one seed for 

 each head, none of the heads setting 

 more than three seeds. Most of these 

 seeds were badly shrunken and distorted 

 in appearance, and upon being planted 

 that fall, only two out of the nine grew. 

 These two supposedly hybrid plants 

 came through the winter in perfect condi- 

 tion but upon heading out the follow- 

 ing Slimmer, one of them proved to be a 

 typical wheat plant, probably the 



result of self-fertilization. The other 

 plant was a true hybrid, possessing 

 some of the characteristics of each 

 parent, but could easily be mistaken 

 for a pure wheat plant. 



The most noteworthy mfferences be- 

 tween the hybrid plant and its parents 

 were in the number of spikelets on the 

 normal spikes, and the length of the 

 culms. The female parent (wheat) 

 has, normally, eight or nine pairs of 

 spikelets per spike, while the male 

 parent (rye) has from sixteen to twenty. 

 The length of the culms in wheat is also 

 considerably less than that of the rye. 

 The hybrid plant contained fourteen to 

 sixteen paired spikelets per spike with 

 culms intermediate in length between 

 the two parents. It was uncommonly 

 thrifty in appearance, and produced 

 twenty-five vigorous culms that devel- 

 oped heads, and also several tillers 

 that did not develop fully. The first 

 spikes to appear produced no seed, the 

 cause of which was revealed by the 

 microscope which showed that, al- 

 though anthers were present, yet no 

 normal pollen grains were developed. 

 The flowers on a f 3w_ of the later spikes 

 were hand-pollinatsd with pn'^len from 

 Kharkov winter wheat, a_ u lejult of 

 which three seeds were produced. These 

 seeds were planted last fall, and two of 

 them grew and produced vigorous 

 plants neither of which survived the 

 past winter. If hardiness is assumed 

 to be a recessive unit character, then 

 one coLild not expect these hybrid 

 plants to survive a winter like the past 

 in which nearly all unprotected wheat 

 plants succumbed. Working on this 

 assumption, hybridization work along 

 the same line will be continued this 

 summer on a larger scale, and the Fi 

 and Fo plants carried through the 

 winter in the greenhouse. 



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