MAIZE LANDRACES OF THE ST. LAWRENCE GREAT-LAKES REGION OF NORTH-AMERICA

Thirty-five white maize (Zea mays L.) landraces were obtained by the I ndian Agricultural Program of Ontario (IAPO) from native farmers in On tario and New York State between 1986 and 1989. These landraces probab ly belong to the racial complex Northern Flints and Flours. The 35 lan draces, one experimental population and one control hybrid were evalua ted in field experiments at two sites in 1993 and 1994. Data were coll ected on 24 traits in order to characterize and classify the IAPO land races. Most quantitative traits examined exhibited considerable variat ion among the IAPO landraces. Variation was also observed within many of the landraces for ear and cob colour, and for endosperm texture. Mo st ears had eight rows of kernels, but there was some variation for th is among and within landraces. Based on seven traits from the two site s in 1994, the IAPO population was grouped into 10 clusters by centroi d clustering analysis.