ORANGE POD PHENOTYPE FOUND IN AN ACCESSION OF PISUM FULVUM SIBTH. & SM. ORIGINATING FROM SYRIA

Seed of Pisum fulvum collected in Syria in 1986 by Southampton University, was sent to East Craigs for recording and bulking. One of these accessions (86155) collected near the town of Safita was part bulked in 1987.

In 1989 an attempt was made to bulk what remained of this accession (5 seeds); plants were sown under glass without temperature or daylength control. When the pods were beginning to lose their green colour, two plants appeared to have very dark pods. On opening a pod, the parchment layer (sclerenchyma) was observed to be a dull orange colour. A few days later, the peduncles also developed a strong brownish orange colour near the drying pod.

To my knowledge, this is the first occurrence of an orange pod phenotype being recorded in wild material. The phenotype first described by Swiecicki (1) , was as an induced mutation following irradiation of the cultivar Paloma. The phenotype observed in 2 plants of this Pisum fulvum accession, is consistent with that described by Swiecicki, and with the phenotype of WT10263, the typeline for orp.

1. Swiecicki, W.K. 1982. PNL 14:65-66.