Article

Over the last few years the Plant Breeding Unit of the J. N. J. A. in Madrid has centred its attention on collecting, maintaining and stud ying the genetic di versity or wild species of the tribe Triticeae (genera Aegilops, Agropyron, Elymus, Elytrigia, Hordelymus, Hordeum, Taeniatherum and Thinopyrum) growing in Spain. The pl ant material collec ted inc ludes samples or 609 natural populations belonging to 25 spec ies ()l' subspec ies, both annual and perennial. These reflect the presence and distribution or the different genera and specics in Spain. The present report covers aspects related to the distriblltion and collection of samplcs, and the analysis of lhe genelic variabilily of natural popllialions or lhese plant materials.