Biomass allocation patterns and reproductive output of four Oenothera L. accessions native to Argentina

VILELA, A. R. , GONZALEZ-PALEO, D. RONDANINNI, AND D.A. RAVETTA

Industrial Crops and Products

Elsevier

Año: 2008 p. 249 - 256

0926-6690

Evening primrose (Oenothera spp.) has the potential to become an alternative oilseed cropin Patagonia, Argentina. This paper describes and compares phenology and allocation patternsof four wild accessions of Oenothera grown in a common garden, under non-limitingconditions. Our objective was to identify useful traits to shorten the domestication process.Accessions differed in the duration of the vegetative growth phase, which was negativelycorrelated to seed production per plant (reproductive output). Fruit set ranged between 70%and 95%, and did not differ among accessions. Differences found in the rate of capsuleproduction did not explain the observed disparity in the number of fruits per plant. Reproductiveoutput was mainly affected by the number of fruits per plant, vegetative biomass,and the proportion between seeds and total biomass (reproductive effort). Individual seedmass did not affect total seed production per plant. Seed-oil content was similar to that ofdomesticated species of evening primrose, but the content of gamma-linolenic acid was fartoo low (<2%) in comparison to the minimum acceptable standard necessary for seed commercialization(9%). Oenothera wild accessions are prone to seed losses by shattering. Weconcluded that short vegetative growth phase and high vegetative biomass would be usefultraits for selection in breeding programs. Fruit shattering and low gamma-linolenic acidcontent are the main drawbacks that should be overcome to facilitate the domestication ofone of these wild accessions.