Comparison of Cicer reticulatum Ladizinsky and C. echinospermum P. H. Davis for agronomical and morphological traits

The species Cicer reticulatum Ladiz. and C. echinospermum P.H. Davis are not only cross-compatible with cultivated chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) also some accessions of these species are resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses. Moreover, these two species have attractive agro-morphological traits for chickpea breeding programs. Germplasm accession of these species faces some threats in their natural habitats due to road, mine and dam constructions, over rangeland tilling and urbanization. Germplasm resources of C. reticulatum and C. echinospermum are too less when compared to other important legumes and represented 18 and 10 original accessions in genebanks, respectively. Considerable new accessions of C. reticulatum and C. echinospermum have recently been collected in east and south-east Anatolia of Turkey but agro- morphological traits of the new germplasm have not been evaluated yet. Therefore, the current study was aimed to elucidate agro-morphological traits of new germplasm sources of C. reticulatum and C. echinospermum and review for resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. This study was carried out at greenhouse of Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey. A total of 221 germplasm including 163 accessions of C. reticulatum and 58 accessions of C. echinospermum was grown in separate rows in 2015 and 2016 years. The distances for row to row and plant to plant in rows were 50 and 20 cm, respectively. The germplasm were irrigated with drip irrigation and fertilized at a rate of 20 kg nitrogen and 20 kg Phosphorus pentoxide per ha. Weeds were removed two times with hand. Plant height (cm), canopy width (cm), the first pod height (cm), number of main stems per plant, number of pods per plant, number of leaflets, biological yield per plant (g), seed yield per plant (g), 100-seed weight (g), harvest index (%) and 50% days to flowering were recorded as yield and yield criteria. Direct and indirect relationships between yield and yield criteria were studied using correlation, path and factor analyses. The most attractive agro-morphological traits were noticed as number of stems, pods and seeds per plant and biological yield. It was suggested that C. reticulatum and C. echinospermum could be used in chickpea breeding programs since most of accessions were found to be had desirable agro-morphological traits and resistant to some biotic and abiotic stresses.