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Wheat Information
Service
Number 73: 33-35
(1991)
Natural
habitat of Aegilops squarrosa in Xinjiang Uygur,
China
M. Tanaka and H. Tsujimoto*
Kihara Memorial Yokohama Foundation for the Advancement of Life
Sciences
* Kihara Institute for Biological Research, Yokohama City University,
Mutsukawa 3-112-20, Minami-ku, Yokohama 232, Japan
We took part in the field research trips of North Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region, China, in 1989 and 1990. One of the objectives of
the trips was to investigate the natural habitat of Aegilops
squarrosa in northern mountainous region of China that is thought
to be north and east margins of the distribution of the
Aegilops species.
In the trip of 1989, we investigated Altay region bordering on U. S.
S. R. and Mongolia. We did not find any species of Aegilops in
this region although we found many species of perennial Triticeae
such as Roegneria and Elymus.
In the trip of 1990, we visited Ili region locating between
Tyan'shan' and Borohoro Mountains. We found the population of Ae.
squarrosa var. typica in several places of this region
(Fig.
1). They grew in
Artemisia-Sophora step with Cirsium spp. We have
collected the samples at three locations (Table
1). At station
No. 908-1 Ae. squarrosa was found only along the road sides.
All the other population were apparently wild, which should not
regard the recent introduction by men or animals. In the population
of 908-2, plants with yellow and black spikes coexisted. The spikes
of one of the collections are shown in Fig.
3.
Ae. squarrosa in this region is supposed to have immigrated
from the West along the Ili River because the other directions are
surrounded with two high mountains. The geographical block by the
mountains seems to hinder the transfer of this species to more
eastern regions. Although Ae. squarrosa is known to grow in
the wheat field or the margins placed along the Yellow River, it
might have transferred together with wheat as a weed. Therefore, the
Ili region thus far is the most east and north margin of the
distribution of Ae. squarrosa.
Acknowledgment
We thank Dr. C. Yen, Shichuan Agricultural University for arrangement
of the research trips. These trips were partially supported by IBPGR
and Kihara Memorial Foundation.
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