Lentil Traits Search

Cotyledon Color

The color of cotyledon, which can be different from seed coat color.

Days till Plants Emerge

The number of days after seeding that plants take to have visible seedling stem or leaves. Lentils exhibit hypogeal germination, with cotyledons remaining below-ground (Saskatchewan Ministry Agriculture & University of Saskatchewan, 2017; Lentil Staging Guide, 2019). The epicotyl, which is the part of the stem above the cotyledons, reaches the ground surface and pushes the main shoot (plumule) above ground (Lentil Staging Guide, 2019). The first two nodes, either below, or at the soil surface are known as scale leaves (Lentil Staging Guide, 2019). The first true leaf comes from the third node with two leaflets (Lentil Production Manual, n.d.). Lentil seedlings are able to regrow from scale leaves when injury happens (Lentil Production Manual, n.d.).

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Days till Plants have 1/2 of their Pods Mature; R7

The number of days after seeding that plants take for 50% of their pods to mature. In lentil, stage R7 refers to physiological maturity (Erskine, Muehlbauer, & Short, 1990). Mature pods are dry and ready to be harvested. Before the pods dry out, they typically lose their green pigmentation, often looking pale, but will still contain moisture. At this stage, lentil leaves and pods begin to turn yellow (Erskine, Muehlbauer, & Short, 1990). However, pod maturity is not always accompanied by a yellowing of the pod -some pods turn white, some are pigmented and may have patterns, CDC QG2 will remain green.

References:

  • Erskine, W., Muehlbauer, F., & Short, R. (1990). Stages of Development in Lentil. Experimental Agriculture, 26(3), 297-302. doi:10.1017/S0014479700018457

Days till Plants have fully Swollen Pods; R5

The number of days after seeding plants take to have fully swollen pods. At this stage, any single pod on nodes 10-13 at the basal primary branch has seeds swollen to completely fill the pod cavity (Erskine, Muehlbauer, & Short, 1990). Each lentil pod usually contains one to two seeds, and the size of the seed pod is generally less than 1 inch long (2.5cm) (Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, 2015). At this stage, the seed coat is formed and there is typically a colour change in the cotyledons.

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Days till Plants have One Open Flower; R1

The number of days plants take to produce the first open flower at any node from seeding. In lentil, flowering occurs from axillary buds on the main stem and branches; proceeding acropetally from lower to higher nodes (Erskine, Muehlbauer, & Short, 1990). Flowers emerge at the base of upper leaves on short flower stalks, with two to three flowers clustering together on each stalk (Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, 2015). There might be a positive correlation between early flowering and early ripeness (Tullu, Kusmenoglu, McPhee, & Muehlbauer, 2001).

References:

  • Erskine, W., Muehlbauer, F., & Short, R. (1990). Stages of Development in Lentil. Experimental Agriculture, 26(3), 297-302. doi:10.1017/S0014479700018457
  • Saskatchewan Pulse Growers. (2015). Lentil production guide from Saskatchewan. Retrieved from https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/pulse-info/resources-pdf/Lentil%20production...
  • Tullu, A., Kusmenoglu, I., McPhee, K. E & Muehlbauer, F. J. (2001). Characterization of core collection of lentil germplasm for phenology, morphology, seed and straw yields. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 48(2), 143Ð152. doi:1023/A:1011254629628

Days to Elongated Tendrils

This trait is the number of days plants take to have tendrils that are 5mm and longer. In lentils, tendrils are developed at the tips on new leaves, just prior to flowering (Saskatchewan Ministry Agriculture & University of Saskatchewan, 2017). At this stage, the first flower clusters are developing at the base of the leaves, and become visible (Lentil Production Manual, n.d.).

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Days to Flower Cluster

Different clusters of the days to flowering (DTF) derived from principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical k-means clustering.

Dehulling Efficiency

Efficient dehulling of lentil requires genotypes with uniformly sized seeds and a plump shape, since thin seeds are inclined to incur greater damage during processing, leading to decreased dehulled yields (Erskine et al., 1991a; Wang, 2008; Shahin et al., 2012). Larger-seeded lentils tend to have a lower percentage of loss during decortication because the proportion of hull to seed mass is lower than that of small seeds (Vandenberg, 2009). Erskine et al. (1991a) found that lentil seeds with a mean seed diameter of 4 mm lost about 8.2% of their weight during dehulling compared with losses from lentil seeds 3 mm in diameter (9.8% on average).

Excert from: Subedi, M., K. E. Bett, H. Khazaei, and A. Vandenberg. 2018. Genetic Mapping of Milling Quality Traits in Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.). Plant Genome 11:170092. doi:10.3835/plantgenome2017.10.0092

References:

  • Erskine, W.,  P.C. Williams, and H. Nakkoul. 1991a. Splitting and dehulling lentil (Lens culinaris): Effects of seed size and different pre-treatments. J. Sci. Food Agric. 57(1):77–84. doi:10.1002/jsfa.2740570109
  • N Wang. 2008. Effect of variety and crude protein content on dehulling quality and on the resulting chemical composition of red lentil (Lens culinaris). J. Sci. Food Agric. 88:885–890. doi:10.1002/jsfa.3165
  • Shahin, M.A.,  S.J. Symons, and N. Wang. 2012. Predicting dehulling efficiency of lentils based on seed size and shape characteristics measured with image analysis. Qual. Assur. Saf. Crops Foods 4:9–16. doi:10.1111/j.1757-837X.2011.00119.x
  • A Vandenberg. 2009. Postharvest processing and value addition. In: Erskine, W., and  Muehlbauer, F.J. , editors, The lentil: Botany, production and uses. CAB International, Wallingford, UK. p. 391–424.

Football Recovery

Lentil's produce pods usually containing two lens-shaped seeds. During processing the seeds are dehulled and whole seeds having cotyledons still attached are known as footballs. As such, the football recovery is the percentage of seeds which were unsplit after milling. Seed characteristics, including seed coat thickness, seed coat components, seed size, and seed dimensions, are important traits, influenced by both genetics and environment, which have been reported to influence the milling performance of lentil and other legume crops (Ramakrishnaiah and Kurien 1983; Kurien, 1984; Wang, 2008; Wood and Malcolmson, 2011; Wood et al., 2012).

References:

  • Ramakrishnaiah, N., and P.P. Kurien. 1983. Variability in the dehulling characteristics of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L.) cultivars. J. Food Sci. Technol. 20:287–291.
  • P.P Kurien. 1984. Dehulling technology of pulses. Res. Indust. 29(3):207–214.
  • Wood, J.A., and L.J. Malcolmson. 2011. Pulse milling technologies. In: Tiwari, B.,  Gowen, A., and  McKenna, B. , editors, Pulse foods: Processing, quality, and nutraceutical applications. Academic Press, Cambridge, MA. p. 193–221.
  • Wood, J.A.,  E.J. Knights,  G.M. Campbell, and M. Choct. 2012. Milling performance and other quality traits affected by seed shape in isogenic lines of desi chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). J. Agric. Sci. 4(10):244–289.

Lodging

Plants are considered lodged when the plant canopy is no longer vertical to the ground. Lodging in lentils potentially results in lower yield and higher disease rate in the regions with cool, wet growing season (Lentil Production Manual, n.d.). Lodge in lentils also leads to high yield losses from a mechanized harvest (Erskine & Goodrich,1988).

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