MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION IN WILD ANNUAL CICER SPECIES IN COMPARISON TOTHE CULTIGEN

Wild species have been exploited for the transfer of useful genes in m ost of the major crops, but little has been done in chickpea improveme nt. Therefore, 228 accessions of eight annual wild Cicer species plus 20 domesticated kabuli chickpea lines were evaluated for 23 vegetative , flower, fruit and seed descriptors at the International Center for A gricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria, during 1993/94 to identify useful variations. Large differences between the cultivate d and the annual wild taxa were found, especially for leaf area, growt h habit, plant height, first pod height, pod dehiscence and 100-seed w eight. These findings suggest that these traits underwent major change s during domestication. Although only a small sample of the cultigen w as included in this study, C. arietinum showed greater morphological v ariability compared with the wild taxa. Among the wild taxa, C. reticu latum, C. echinospermum and C. bijugum had the largest variability and were also morphologically closest to the cultigen. Overall, the annua l wild Cicer species were of no advantage for direct genetic improveme nt of agronomic traits in chickpea. Nevertheless, interesting variabil ity was found for a few descriptors: wide leaflets in C. chorassanicum ; many branches in C. bijugum and C. reticulatum; and early flowering in C. judaicum.