Avena ventricosa: Possible diploid contributor to hexaploid oats

Avena ventricosa Balansa, with a diploid number (2n) of 14, is the leastknown diploid oat species. Only two collections of this species have been reported (1), one from Algeria (subsp. ventricosa) and one from Baku (subsp. bruhnsiana). We have examined samples from both locations (2) and have found that A. ventricosa is distinct from other diploid Avena in that it lacks awns on the tips of its lemmas and has an extremely asymmetrical karyotype. It has six pairs of chromosomes with subterminal centromeres and only one pair of satellited chromosomes (Fig. 1). All other diploid oats.