Comparison of morphological, yield, and phenological characteristics of A. minus, A. szwitsianum and A. desertorum under field condition

This study was carried out to compare growth characteristics of three species of Alyssum minus, A. szwitsianum and A. desertorum over two years, 2017 and 2018, in a randomized complete block design with three replication at Isfahan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center. Measured traits were yield characteristic including total dry weight, leaf, stem, root and seed dry weight; morphological characteristics including plant height, maximum and minimum plant diameter, plant cover and stem number; and phenolological characteristics including day to flowering, day to seeding and day to seed ripening. The highest biological and seed yield were achieved in A. minus, 1003 and 375 kg/ha respectively, while A. desertorum showed the lowest rates, 559 and 207 kg/ha respectively. Morphological traits analysis represented that A. minus had the highest rates of plant height, stem number, plant diameter and cover. A. minus and A. desertorum with 101 and 95 days to seed ripening were the longest and shortest lifelong species. The highest correlation rates between seed yield with other characteristics were including biological yield (0.90), plant height (0.79), stem number (0.76) and cover (0.75). On the whole, results of this study showed that A. minus showed the highest yield potential among the studied species.