Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-09T07:55:06.026Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Morphologic variation in the USDA/ARS rhubarb germplasm collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2009

Alberto Pantoja  and
Joseph C. Kuhl
Alberto Pantoja*
Affiliation:
United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Subarctic Agricultural Research Unit, 362 O'Neill Building, Fairbanks, AK99775-7200, USA
Joseph C. Kuhl
Affiliation:
United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Subarctic Agricultural Research Unit, 533 E. Fireweed Avenue, Palmer, AK99645-6629, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Rhubarb includes approximately 60 species in the genus Rheum. It has been utilized for thousands of years for medicinal purposes, but only recently identified for its culinary use. In the mid 1700s, edible petioles were discovered on seedlings from rhubarb species. Hundreds of cultivars have since been identified for a wide range of uses from tarts to wine. Unfortunately, propagation by seed and irregular naming has resulted in a plethora of similarly named cultivars and multitude of phenotypes. Fifteen morphological characters were evaluated to differentiate rhubarb cultivars in the USDA, ARS Rheum collection in Palmer, Alaska. Two years of morphological data, focusing on horticultural characteristics indicated variation between the years. To improve cultivar resolution, the results suggest using 1 year's data instead of combining data from different years. The mean °Brix observed was 3.8, with a range from 2.2 to 6.1. Flesh colour and basal skin colour were poorly correlated (R2 = 0.462); overall skin colour was more red at the base than in the middle of the petiole. Rhubarb character categories, in particular petiole number and petiole base thickness, need to be modified to better anticipate the range of expected values, and thereby contribute improved reproducibility and reliability to separate cultivars based on morphological characters.

Keywords

culinarycultivarsdescriptorsmorphologicR. rhabarbarumR. xhybridumRheumrhubarb
Type
Research Article
Information
Plant Genetic Resources , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , April 2010 , pp. 35 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © NIAB 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chin, TC and Youngken, HW (1947) The cytotaxonomy of Rheum. American Journal of Botany 34: 401–407.Google Scholar
Daie, J (1984) Characterization of sugar transport in storage tissue in carrot. Journal of American Society Horticultural Science 109: 718–722.Google Scholar
Echeverria, E and Ismail, M (1990) Sugars unrelated to Brix changes in stored citrus fruits. HortScience 25: 710.Google Scholar
Englund, R (1983) Odlad rabarber och taxonomiska problem inon släktet Rheum speciellt sektionen Rhapontica. Report. Uppsala: Department of Systematic Botany, Uppsala University, p. 17.Google Scholar
Foust, CM (1992) Rhubarb: The Wondrous Drug. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, p. 371.Google Scholar
Foust, CM and Marshall, DE (1991) Culinary rhubarb production in North America: history and recent statistics. HortScience 26: 1360–1363.Google Scholar
GRIN (2009) Germplasm Resources Information Network Available at http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/swish/accboth?query = rheum&si = 0.Google Scholar
Gills, LA, Resurreccion, AVA, Hurst, WC, Reynolds, AE and Phatak, SC (1999) Sensory profiles of carrot (Daucus carota L.) cultivars grown in Georgia. HortScience 34: 625–628.Google Scholar
Kuhl, JC and DeBoer, VL (2008) Genetic diversity of rhubarb cultivars. Journal of American Society Horticultural Science 133: 587–592.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kyprianou, M (2007) Commission Directive 2007/49/EC. Official Journal of the European Union. pp. L195/33–35.Google Scholar
Laleh, GH, Frydoonfar, H, Heidary, R, Jameei, R and Zare, S (2006) The effect of temperature, pH, and species on stability of anthocyanin pigments in four berberis species. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition 5: 90–92.Google Scholar
Morse, JE (1901) The New Rhubarb Culture. New York: Orange Judd Publishing Company, p. 130.Google Scholar
NRCS (2009) Natural Resources Conservation Service Available at http://www2.ftw.nrcs.usda.gov/osd/dat/K/KNIK.html.Google Scholar
National Climatic Data Center (2008) US Monthly Surface Data Available at http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/ncdc.html (accessed 13 March 2009).Google Scholar
Persson, HA, Rumpunen, K and Möllerstedt, LK (2000) Identification of culinary rhubarb (Rheum spp.) cultivars using morphological characterization and RAPD markers. Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology 75: 684–689.Google Scholar
Rumpunen, K (1996) Development of selection methods and strategies for breeding of culinary rhubarb. Report 1992–94. Balsgård: Departement of Horticultural Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, pp. 90–94.Google Scholar
Rumpunen, K and Henriksen, K (1999) Phytochemical and morphological characterization of seventy-one cultivars and selections of culinary rhubarb (Rheum spp.). Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology 74: 13–18.Google Scholar
SARU (2009) Subarctic Agricultural Research Unit Available at http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/site.pl?PALM.Google Scholar
Turner, DM (1938) The economic rhubarbs: a historical survey of their cultivation in Britain. Journal of Royal Horticultural Society 63: 355–370.Google Scholar
UPOV (International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants) (1999) Guidelines for the conduct of tests for distinctness, uniformity and stability (TG/62/6). Geneva: UPOV, p. 16.Google Scholar
Walkey, DGA and Mathews, KAM (1979) Rapid cloning propagation of rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum) from meristem-tips in tissue culture. Plant Science Letters 14: 301–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, A, Yang, M and Liu, J (2005) Molecular phylogeny, recent radiation and evolution of gross morphology of the rhubarb genus Rheum (Polygonaceae) inferred from chloroplast DNA trnL-F sequences. Annals of Botany 96: 489–498.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zandstra, BH and Marshall, DE (1982) A grower's rhubarb production. American Vegetable Grower 30: 9–10.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Pantoja supplementary material

Table.doc

Download Pantoja supplementary material(File)
File 85 KB