Abstract
Landraces are thought to be well adapted
to the environmental conditions of the region where
they have evolved and to be highly tolerant to biotic
and abiotic stress. There is indeed experimental
evidence of that for several cereal species, but to our
knowledge only scarce data is available on rye and
none on rye landraces from South Tyrol in particular.
For this region, assumptions rely mainly on historic
documents or reports from the owners of the landraces.
In a 3-year field experiment we described 13 landraces
from Val Venosta/Vinschgau (South Tyrol, Italy),
along with six modern population cultivars (CUL), at a
mountain location. Depending on the available passport
data, the landraces were assigned to two variety
types: well documented landrace status (DLS) and
uncertain landrace status (ULS). 14 traits concerning
phenology, agronomy, indirect milling and baking
quality as well as seed colour were investigated. Most
of the traits representing the usual target of modern
breeding were found to be dependent on the variety
type. The results reflect well the expected differences
between CUL and DLS, while ULS had an intermediate
character. Winter hardiness and ripening time of
both DLS and ULS, however, were found to be
affected by the altitude of the site at which the
landraces were collected, suggesting a certain adaptation
of the landraces to the climatic conditions at the
sites of origin