Tritipyrum, a potential new salt-tolerant cereal

Salt-affected soil is a major world-wide problem with many hectares of land lost to cultivation each year. To combat this problem, the development and assessment of a novel salt tolerant cereal, tritipyrum, was carried out. This is a hybrid between wheat and Thinopyrum bessarabicum, a very salt-tolerant member of the Triticeae. A range of tritipyrums derived from crosses between tetraploid wheal, Triticum durum, and Th. bessarabicum was produced. Although meiosis in the tritipyrums was generally regular, chromosome pairing failure was observed in each of the genotypes. In addition, the level of fertility was relatively low, the fertility of bagged spikes ranging from 29% to 51%. One tritipyrum produced multiple seeds in some florets. Three tritipyrums selected at random performed better than their wheat parents in hydroculture experiments in each of three treatments (150, 200 and 250 mol/m(3) NaCl). The potential for the exploitation of tritipyrum in salt-affected soils is discussed.