Variation of agronomic and qualitative traits and local adaptation of mountain landraces of winter rye (Secale cereale L.) from Val Venosta/Vinschgau (South Tyrol)

Landraces are thought to be well adapted to the environmental conditions of the region where they have evolved and to be highly tolerant to biotic and abiotic stress. There is indeed experimental evidence of that for several cereal species, but to our knowledge only scarce data is available on rye and none on rye landraces from South Tyrol in particular. For this region, assumptions rely mainly on historic documents or reports from the owners of the landraces. In a 3-year field experiment we described 13 landraces from Val Venosta/Vinschgau (South Tyrol, Italy), along with six modern population cultivars (CUL), at a mountain location. Depending on the available passport data, the landraces were assigned to two variety types: well documented landrace status (DLS) and uncertain landrace status (ULS). 14 traits concerning phenology, agronomy, indirect milling and baking quality as well as seed colour were investigated. Most of the traits representing the usual target of modern breeding were found to be dependent on the variety type. The results reflect well the expected differences between CUL and DLS, while ULS had an intermediate character. Winter hardiness and ripening time of both DLS and ULS, however, were found to be affected by the altitude of the site at which the landraces were collected, suggesting a certain adaptation of the landraces to the climatic conditions at the sites of origin.