Ecological Evaluation and Taxonomic Identification of Linum spp. in Iran

Abstract

Wild relatives of crop plants are the richest source of diversity for desirable characters especially for different resistances and tolerances to biotic and abiotic stresses. Unfortunately, our knowledge is not enough regarding the wild and cultural species and weedy relatives. Genetic erosion in some parts of the world especially Iran is increasingly alarming. There are many reasons for the need to collect the wild relatives, such as collecting for identification, botanical classification and also to study the genetic diversity and their conservation. The present study, which is based on, the gene banks mandate and objectives was conducted for a period of 3 years in different areas covered in Iran based on the descriptors & IPGRI and recommendations of Marshall and Brown have been done. Different wild and cultural of Linum species during this period were collected and using the key to identification existing in the references have been identified and classified botanically. Results from this study are as follows accessions from 16 species of flax seed in Iran such as L. album, L. usitatissimum, L. strictum, L. tenuifolium, L.nervosum, L. nodiflorum, L. persicum, L. glacum, L. corymbulosm, L. bienne, L. peyronii, L. mucronatum, L. catharticum, L. austriacum, L. densiflorum and L. grandiflorumm were collected form different parts of Iran and after identification and database management system. The accessions were transport to the cold storage rooms for conservation of germplasm.