CROP WILD RELATIVES

On the bases of analysis of the collecting sites of 1160 herbarium specimens and 1640 genebank accessions of wild Avena L. species from the world collection of the Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources maps of areas of the species were produced data base. A comparison of the climate conditions of the Mediterranean, Southwestern Asiatic and Abyssinian centers of diversity with those of the oat species distribution areas shows that all oat species mostly prefer the moderately hot, semi-arid and dry climate. An analysis of the range of soils in the areas of wild oat species distribution has shown that the collected accessions, preferred different types of soil. When considering the soil diversity within the areas of natural distribution of wild oat species, it could be established that the majority of diploid and tetraploid taxa prefer to grow on mountain or plain cinnamon soils; the hexaploid taxa favorites were the mountain forest brown or red-brown soils, as well as subtropical desert soils. An analysis of the database of geographic distribution on wild oat species showed a full picture of oat species diversity, and a basis to make plans concerning further collecting activities or a basis for selecting potential sources of novel genes that can improve some valuable traits and characters to use them for practical purposes.