Principal morphological and agronomic characteristics of some durum wheat varieties in central Italy influenced by meteorological anomalies

In a climatic change scenario, plant phenological adaptation, and the variability of reproductive structure development during anthesis, represents a primary trait for surviving to particular growing conditions reducing the negative effects of anomalous environmental conditions. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of the principal climatic variables on winter durum wheat phenology and to assess the constraints associated with these environmental factors on annual yield in an area characterized by !ooding problems. Moreover, the investigation provided useful information about the phenological adaptation, morphological and productive characteristics of durum wheat cultivars testing at the same time their suitability to speci"c agroclimatic conditions in a central Italy area (Rieti plain), where several durum wheat cultivars were evaluated during 11 years of investigations from 2006 to 2016.The correlation and regression analyses evidenced as some biological parameters related to durum wheat vegetative and reproductive developments were in accordance with particular climatic phenomena con"rming as the developmental phases length optimization may favour the wheat adaptation to climatic anomalies. Really, both the plant height and above all the number of spikes/m2 resulted highly related with the phenological phases length considering their link with the same plant morphology. Moreover, yield appeared greatly related with the number of spikes/m2 and so with the plant tillering rate while the exclusion of !ooding years in the Rieti plain showed the kernel weight as the variable more important to determine the "nal yield not considering in this database the plant tillering problem.