CGN wheat collection

Composition

Besides the former working collection of the SVP, a substantial part of the collection originated from the former Wageningen Triticinae Collection, that was established between 1965 and 1985 by Dr. A. Zeven from the IVP (van Loosdrecht, 1986). Material from the former Wageningen research institutes, like CPRO-DLO and IPO-DLO, as well as breeding companies has also been included in the collection.

When the wheat collection was established, it was decided to use the classification according to Morris and Sears (1967) in which there is only one genus named Triticum. As the majority of collection holders currently use a classification system in which Aegilops and Triticum are separate genera, it was decided to follow the GRIN Taxonomy. This change was effectively made in 2020.

The cultivated part of the collection comprises material of T. monococcum, the T. turgidum group, T. timopheevii var. timopheevii and the T. aestivum group. The latter group includes the hexaploid wheat variants aestivum, spelta, compactum and sphaeroccocum. The T. turgidum group includes the tetraploid wheat variants durum, dicoccon, carthlicum, turgidum and polonicum. Most cultivated wheats of the collection belong to the T. aestivum group, particularly to the T. aestivum subsp. aestivum. This group includes for roughly a half accessions of winter wheat, and a half winter wheats accessions, and a small part are accessions of intermediate types. Approximately half of the accession is of European and North American origin. Only three old Dutch wheat landraces are present in the collection, namely Zeeuwse witte, Limburgse Kleine Rode, and Gelderse Ris. The IVP in Wageningen and R.J. Mansholt in Groningen bred the first Dutch wheat varieties, and around 30 varieties from these breeders are included in the collection. There is also a significant part accessions from Asia and Africa. These accessions are mainly landraces collected between 1953 and 1981 in the centres of diversity (Middle East, Nepal, Pakistan, India, North Africa and Ethiopia). A limited number of accessions are from South America, Australia and New Zealand. The T. turgidum group consists for more than half of durum wheats, mainly landraces from Mediterranean countries.

The wild part of the collection includes material from the following 14 Aegilops species: A. triuncialis, A. peregrina, A. columnaris, A. biuncialis, A. neglecta, A. geniculata, A. cylindrica, A. caudata, A. bicornis, A. longissima, A. speltoides, A. tauschii, A. crassa and A. ventricosa. With the exception of some tetraploids, the majority of these species are diploid. A large part of the wild accessions is wild emmer, Triticum turgidum var. dicoccoides. These wild emmer accessions are mainly collected in Israel.