PERFORMANCE OF LATHYRUS SPP. IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

M.S. Miyan¹, W.D. Bellotti¹, P.D. Carpenter¹, A. McCord², and J. Egan³

¹The University of Adelaide, Roseworthy, SA 5371²PISA, PO Box 469, Murray Bridge, SA 5253³SARDI, PO Box 1783, Port Lincoln, SA 5606

A number of Lathyrus species have potential as grain and/or forage legumes for the Australian wheatbelt. Lathyrus spp. are able to grow in low fertility soils, and in low rainfall (<300 mm) environments, where currently in Australia there are no well adapted grain legumes. Earlier work (1) indicated the high grain yield potential of some lines of Lathyrus in low-rainfall environments. Current interest in Lathyrus is high following the identification of genotypes with low levels of the seed neurotoxin, ODAP (2). This project forms part of the national evaluation of Lathyrus germplasm.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A total of 39 lines of Lathyrus sativus (khesari) and L. cicera (dwarf chickling) were compared with field pea (cv. Alma) and common vetch (cv. Blanchefleur) at three locations in South Australia in 1994 and 1995.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In general, the highest grain yielding Lathyrus accessions compared favourably with field peas and vetch (Table 1). At all sites, L. cicera has out-yielded L. sativus. Based on these results, research is continuing to evaluate and select well adapted Lathyrus cultivars for low-rainfall environments. All accessions are being screened for low seed neurotoxin (ODAP) levels.

Table 1. Grain yield (t/ha) of Lathyrus accessions in South Australia.

Cultivar/ Accession	Roseworthy 1995	Minnipa 1994	Minnipa 1995	Wynarka 1994	Wynarka 1995
Average Rainfall (mm) Peas cv. Alma	(440) 1.9	(300) 0.34	(300) 0.79	(340) 0.73	(340) 2.3
Vetch cv. Blanchefleur	2.7	0.18	0.47	0.41	1.0
Lathyrus sativus¹	1.0-2.7	0.10-0.38	0.12-0.44	0.11-0.41	0.4-1.9
Lathyrus cicera²	0.9-3.7	0.12-0.59	0.14-0.69	0.23-0.94	0.5-2.2
Site Mean	2.55	0.35	0.35	0.44	1.35

¹ Range of 18 accessions, ² Range of 21 accessions

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project is funded by Grains Research and Development Corporation.

REFERENCES

1. George, D. 1987. Final report to Wheat Industry Research Committee, SADA, Adelaide.

2. Hanbury, C.D., Sarker, A., Siddique, K.M. and Perry, M.W. 1995. CLIMA Occ. Pap. No. 8.

"Agronomy - Science with its sleeves rolled up". Edited by DL Michalk and JE Pratley. Proceedings of the 8th Australian Agronomy Conference, 30 January - 2 February 1996, The University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland.