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Aegilops ovata (17)
Ae. ovata was found in the roadside five miles west of Willits, California. It grows at the edge of the site and the plants are smaller in size than the surrounding other grass species. This is because Ae. ovata is less competitive than tall grass species. The population size was not so large. It is considered that Ae. ovata has also spread as a contaminant of cattle feed.

The Ae. cylindrica accessions described in this report will be added to the list given in Watanabe (1997), and will be used to assess genetic differentiation in this adventitious Aegilops species. Ae. triuncialis has a diphyletic origin from the reciprocal hybrids between Ae. caudata and Ae. umbellulata. (Ogihara and Tsunewaki 1982). It has three chloroplast genotypes (Murai and Tsunewaki 1986). However, it is not clear which cytoplasm type is predominant in the specific ecological niches. Unfortunately, there is no historical record on the introduction of Ae. triuncialis to California. Since the Spanish people first colonized California, one approach to trace back the route of introduction would be comparison of allelic and genotypic compositions between Spanish and Californian populations.


Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. J.G. Waines, University of California, Riverside and Dr. L. Morrison, Oregon State University, Corvallis for their kind advises to collect the spikes of Aegilops species. We are also grateful to Dr. G. Belay for his helpful comments on the manuscript. Our collection was partially supported by the grant to NW from Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan (No. O9NP0901).


References

Murai K and Tsunewaki K (1986) Molecular basis of the genetic diversity among cytoplasms of Triticum and Aegilops species. IV. CtDNA variation in Ae. triuncialis. Heredity 57: 335-339.

Ogihara Y and Tsunewaki K (1982) Molecular basis of the genetic diversity of the chloroplast genome and its lineage revealed by the restriction pattern of ctDNAs. Jpn J Genet 57: 371-396.

Seefeldt SS, Zemetra R, Young FL and Jones SS (1998) Production of herbicide-resistant jointed goatgrass (Aegilops cylindrica) x wheat (Triticum aestivum) hybrids in the field by natural hybridization. Weed Sci. 46: 632-634.

van Slageren MW (1994) Wild wheat: a monograph of Aegilops L. and Ampyropyrum (Jaob. & Spach) Eig (Poaceae). Wageningen Agric Univ and Int Center for Agric Res Dry Area. 1-513.

Watanabe N (1997) Assembly of North American accessions of Aegilops cylindrica. Wheat Inf Serv 84: 60-63.

Zemetra R, Hansen J and Mallory-Smith CA (1998) Potential for gene transfer between wheat (Triticum aestivum) and jointed goatgrass (Aegilops cylindrica). Weed Sci. 46: 313-317.

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