Studying Morphological Characteristics of Seminal and Adventitious Root Systems of Durum and Bread Wheat Cultivars

To study the root structure and its morphological characteristics of winter and durum wheat cultivars, an experiment was carried out based on randomized completely design with four replications at faculty of Agriculture, Ilam University during 2013-2014. Experimental treatments consisted of six bread wheat cultivars (Sardari, Keras Sabalan, Nestor, Pistaz, Bahar and S83-3), four durum wheat cultivars (Karkheh, Dena, Sora and Saji). Traits under study were seminal roots, nodal roots, sub-nodal roots, number of total roots, seminal roots length, nodal and sub-nodal roots, total root lengths, root dry weight, root volume and root to shoot ratio. The results showed significant differences for root structure of bread wheat cultivars (Sardari, Keras Sabalan and Nestor). They had stronger root system than the other bread wheat cultivars.It was also found that Saji from durum and Sabalan cross from bread wheat cultivars had the highest number of total roots (seminal, nodal and sub-nodal roots), root length total (seminal, nodal and sub-nodal roots), root volume and root/shoot ratio as compared with the other cultivars under study. Orthogonal contrast for three groups of genotypes indicated that in terms of number and length of nodal roots, bread wheat cultivars showed higher values as compared to durum wheat cultivars.