Grain Yield and Morphology of Dwarf vs Tall White Lupin in Mediterranean Environments

There is lack of information on the preferable plant architecture of white lupin (Lupinus albus L.) for Mediterranean environments. The objective of this study was to compare tall vs dwarf near-isogenic lines from two gene pools for grain yield and plant morphology. The four lines were assessed in a Mediterranean-climate site of Sardinia for two seasons under two sowing densities (25.4 and 35.5 seeds/m2). On average, one gene pool (#15) exhibited a semi-determinate growth habit on the basis of its high seed proportion on the main stem relative to the other, indeterminate gene pool #16 (54.9% vs 45.5; P 0.05). Although preliminary, our results for Mediterranean environments highlight the genotype-specific usefulness of dwarfism and suggest that this trait might be beneficial in germplasm with indeterminate growth habit.