With a hybrid crop called Salish Blue, scientists at Washington State University have combined wheat and wheatgrass in a new species with the potential to help Pacific Northwest farmers and the environment.
With a hybrid crop called Salish Blue, scientists at Washington State University have combined wheat and wheatgrass in a new species with the potential to help Pacific Northwest farmers and the environment.
Salish Blue is just one variety of a new perennial grain species, ×Tritipyrum aaseae. It’s the first new species to be named by wheat breeders at WSU in 122 years of breeding.
Colin Curwen-McAdams, a graduate research assistant at the WSU Bread Lab at Mount Vernon, and Stephen Jones, wheat breeder and director of the lab, describe development of the species in a recent issue of Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution (http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10722-016-0463-3).
Perennial grains add value
Unlike bread wheat, which is planted and dies in a single generation, perennial grains hold the promise of bearing seed for multiple harvests. At the same time, perennial hybrids can bring ecological benefits to grain production.
Read more at Washington State University
Photo: WSU graduate research assistant Colin Curwen-McAdams with ×Tritipyrum aaseae.
