REACTION OF WILD-SPECIES OF THE GENUS LENS TO DROUGHT

Susceptibility to drought stress is a key factor in dry land lentil (L ens culinaris Medikus) production in the Mediterranean region of West Asia and North Africa. This study examined the response to drought str ess of 121 accessions representing all subspecies of the genus Lens; c ultivated, and the wild L. culinaris ssp, orientalis (Boiss.) Ponert, L. culinaris ssp. odemensis (Ladiz.), L. nigricans M.B. Godr. ssp. nig ricans Godr. and L. nigricans ssp. ervoides (Brign.) Ladiz. for their potential use in breeding for dry land conditions. Accessions were gro wn under two moisture regimes (dry land and dry land plus supplemental irrigation) at Breda, Syria during the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons. T he cultivated lentil had markedly superior seed and straw production t han did the wild Lens species. Time to flowering accounted for less th an 10% of the variation in yield of wild accessions under rainfed cond itions in the two seasons, showing that, in contrast to the cultivated germplasm, drought escape was relatively unimportant in wild lentil. Performance under drought in wild lentil, measured in terms of dry lan d seed yield or drought susceptibility index (S), was randomly distrib uted among collection locations with little relation to collection sit e aridity. Direct selection of wild lentil germplasm for biomass yield under dry conditions is of little value and an evaluation of wild acc essions in hybrid combination is needed.