Quinoa - Morphology, phenology and prospects for its production as a new crop in Europe

Abstract

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a relatively unimproved plant species, native to the Andean region of South America. It possesses considerable variation for a range of morphological characters, which could prove useful in the breeding of, and selection for, quantitative traits. Qualitative morpho logical characters, which can be used as markers in the description and characterization of quinoa cultivars, include plant colour, leaf morphology, branching characteristics, inflorescence type and size and colour of seed. Genetic markers will also be necessary, if artificial hybridization is replaced by other, less controllable methods.

Quinoa is an allotetraploid species with 2 n = 4 x = 36. The common weed pigweed (Chenopodium album) is hexaploid, thus it cannot be crossed with quinoa in the field, thereby causing problems in breeding programmes. However, in the USA another chenopod weed, C. berlandieri, which is tetraploid, has shown to cause problems by incrossing with quinoa.

The inheritance of different qualitative traits are shown, including genetic and cytoplasmic male sterility, which can be valuable in future breeding and in the production of hybrids. Currently, research is carried on in Europe with the aim of introducing quinoa as a new crop to the region. So far, the results regarding quinoa as a drought resistant crop of high nutritive quality, which can be grown on poor, infertile soils, seem promising.