CGN grain legumes collection

The Pisum, the Vicia faba, and to a lesser extent the Lupinus collections have been extended with material from the Centre for Plant Breeding and Reproduction Research (CPRO-DLO), with accessions received from several breeding companies in the Netherlands and with some landraces from two East European genebanks. The grain legume collection does not have a high priority in the CGN system and receives less emphasis.

Pea (Pisum)

The collection of about 1050 accessions mainly consists of material of P. sativum. The collection includes over 349 landraces, 47 from Europe including only four from the Netherlands (Grauwe erwt, Noord-Hollandse Rozijnenerwt, Boerengrauw, and Wijker Vale). The other European landraces are mainly from Eastern and Southern Europe. More than 250 landraces are from Asia (68) and Africa (88). This material is rather primitive and not well adapted to conditions in Northwestern Europe. It includes 66 accessions from Pakistan; this material was collected with Dutch participation (Hashmi et al. 1981).

Eighty-eight accessions have been collected in Ethiopia, of which 72 in 1950/51 by W.A. Archer, Beltsville Agricultural Centre, USA. The cultivars (N=509) form the majority of the collection and consist of dry peas for animal feeding and peas for human consumption. The latter group includes over 140 cultivars. Most of the cultivars are of European origin and only a limited number are from North America and Australia. There are 86 accessions classified as research material, particularly from Europe and the USA. The population type of a relatively large group of accessions (51) is not defined. Furthermore the country of origin of 120 accessions is not known.

Faba bean (Vicia faba)

The faba bean collection consists of 725 accessions of the cultivated species V. faba. There are 394 landraces in the collection, largely from Asia (187) and Africa (119). These landraces were collected in the centres of origin of the Faba bean, particularly in a number of countries of the Middle East such as Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Turkey. Also present are 78 landraces from the sub-centre of origin in Ethiopia. Only 61 landraces from Europe are found in the collection, including the old Dutch landrace Oldambster. The faba bean collection includes 228 cultivars. The accessions are mainly from Europe (195), particularly from the Netherlands (55), Germany (59), the United Kingdom (23), France (16) and Russia (11). Old Dutch cultivars in the collection are Mansholt's Wierboon (1892), Adrie (1919) and Wierboon C.B. (1931). Only a few cultivars from Asia, Africa and America are present in the collection. Ten accessions belong to the 'population type' research material. The country of origin and the population type of respectively 49 and 93 accessions are not known.

Lupine (Lupinus)

This small collection includes almost 70 accessions of the species L. albus and L. luteus. In the collection are only two landraces of Eastern Europe and 19 cultivars from The Netherlands, Germany and Poland. The other material mainly consists of research material of the former Foundation for Plant Breeding (SVP) and Poland (Van Soest and Boukema 1995).

Regeneration and characterisation

Faba beans and lupines are regenerated in plots spatially isolated in winter cereal fields with a distance of approximately 80 m between the plots, in tunnels or in isolation cages in the greenhouse The size of the plots is 8 m², and normally 200 seeds are directly sown in the field. Peas are sown directly in the field without isolation. Per accession 100 seeds are sown against a fence. During the growing season the accessions are both visually and by means of serological tests monitored for Pea Seed-borne Mosaic Virus (PSMV). Plants detected with PSMV infections are removed entirely. During the regeneration, accessions of P. sativum and V. faba have been characterized for 14 and 13 different agro-morphological traits, respectively, using CGN minimal descriptor lists (Dijkstra and Van Soest 1986). The lists are partly derived from the IPGRI and UPOV descriptor lists and were developed after consultation with several breeders of grain legumes. Prof. J. Kraft (USDA/ARS, Prosser WA, USA) evaluated several Pisum accessions from Pakistan for resistance against three diseases ( Fusarium solani f. sp. pisi, race 2 of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. pisi and Aphanomyces euteiches). All evaluation data can be downloaded via the CGN website.

The two Lupinus species have only been characterized for two traits; plant type and flower colour.