THE INHERITANCE OF PUBESCENT NODES IN A CROSS 
BETWEEN TWO VARIETIES OF WHEAT 1 
By H. H. Love, Department of Plant Breeding, Cornell University Agricultural Ex¬ 
periment Station, and W. T. Craig, Agent, Office of Cereal Investigations, Bureau 
of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture 
Nearly all varieties of wheat have glabrous nodes, but there are some which have 
pubescent (velvet) nodes. One of these was furnished to the authors by J. A. 
Clark, of the Office of Cereal Investigations. It was a bearded variety with 
glabrous glumes, which had been found by Ball and Clark as a rather common ad¬ 
mixture in a plat of mixed Pacific Bluestem and Baart (Early Baart) wheat on 
the Adams County Branch Station at Lind, Washington. It was given Cereal 
Investigations accession number 5877 and, tentatively, the name “ Velvetnode.” 
As it does not occur as a commercial variety, it does not appear in the published 
classification of American wheats. Its most peculiar character was the possession 
of hairy nodes. 
To study the inheritance of the hairy node the Velvetnode variety was crossed 
with a strain of unknown origin in the plant-breeding nursery. It was being 
carried under the name “New Columbia” but is not related to the variety grown 
commercially under that name, which is the same as Fultzo-Mediterranean. The 
Cornell strain is beardless, has pubescent glumes, and glabrous nodes. This 
strain has been given Cereal Investigations No. 5946. It is most closely related 
to Mealy but has very purple stems. 
The first generation of this cross resulted in plants that were beardless, with 
pubescent glumes and nodes. The plants seemed to be perfectly fertile and the 
heads were well filled with seed. 
The seeds from these Fi plants were sown in the field in the fall of 1921, and the 
resulting plants were studied during the following summer. Although it had been 
thought that the Velvetnode was a spring variety, all of the plants seemed to 
survive the winter and produced fairly thrifty plants. 
At harvest time the plants were pulled and sorted first for pubescent nodes only. 
While there was some variation in the length and number of hairs on the nodes 
there was no attempt to distinguish between the different types, and all individuals 
that had ai^ hairs on the node were classed as pubescent. The segregation 
seemed to indicate a 3:1 ratio with pubescent node dominant. On observing the 
two lots of plants, however, it was noted that all of the bearded plants were in 
the group with hairy nodes. No bearded plants were found in the glabrous- 
noded class. The plants were then reclassified according to the characters of 
nodes and beards. The results of this segregation are shown in Table I. 
1 Received for publication April 16, 1924. Paper No. 130, Department of Plant Breeding, Cornell Uni¬ 
versity, Ithaca, New York. These results were obtained in investigations conducted cooperatively by 
the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station and the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept, of 
Agriculture. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. XXVIII, No. 8 
Washington, D. C. May 24, 1924 
Key No. G-457 
( 841 ) 
