Phenotypic Diversity of Caryopsis Dormancy and Its Association with Morphological Traits of Mother Plant in Iranian Climatic Ecotypes of Hordeum spontaneum L.

Seed dormancy has a critical role in ecological adaptation of wild plant species such as Hordeum spontaneum، a wild relative of barley. In this study، 192 ecotypes of Hordeum spontaneum maintained in National Plant Gene Bank of Iran (NPGBI) originating from different climatic zones of the country were evaluated. Morphological، phenological and physiological traits were recorded in the field. After harvest، the seeds were kept at 5°C for six months then were evaluated for seed dormancy. Evaluation of seed dormancy in different ecotypes of wild barley indicated that، seed dormancy was significantly higher in ecotypes of desert and cold desert climates (77. 6% and 83. 7% respectively) compared to ecotypes originating from cold steppe climates (45. 6%). The germination index was higher in cold steppe ecotypes (2. 08) than ecolypes of other climates. Correlation of seed dormancy and some qualitative traits such as glum color، grain color and awn color was significant. In this study the seed dormancy was higher in ecotypes with darker color glum، grain and awn.