Scientific Papers Series B Horticulture

Genetic autochthonous heritage wasinventoried and 16 species were discovered inspontaneous flora, many belonging toAmaranthus retroflexus, Amaranthus liividusand Amaranthus blitoides species. Worldwidewe found that are over 800 species ofAmaranthus.The next step aimed to form a collection fieldwhich has presently 20 valuable genotypesfrom local and foreign origins. Afterintensively breeding works, 3 of them werepromoted in the work field: L1, Amaranthusretroflexus, L4, Amaranthus caudatus, L5,Amaranthus cruentus. These lines correspondD.U.S. criteria demonstrating distinctness,homogeneity and stability as for wereundergone to conservative selection program.Crop establishment was made by seedlingsgrown on 70 holes alveolar pallets on redgrounded nutritional turf substrate. Seedlingsproduction is similar to the other vegetablespecies production, to mention that seedlingswere thinned after spring and a single plant wasleft per hole. This work was necessary becauseof the extremely small size of the seeds,making imposible the introduction only of oneseed in a hole. Field crop establishment wasmade on 1,4 m shaped land using L 445 tractorin aggregate with MMS 1,2. Planting was madein equidistant rows spaced at 70 cm and 35-40cm distance between plants per row. The cropdid not require special care works, were onlymanually and mechanical breed and irrigated.Was not necessary to apply chemical orbiological treatements against pests anddiseases or soil and foliar fertilization. The 3crops displayed original potentiall forsuccessfully ecological cultivation.from rare villages placed 700-800 m altitude.The residents used it in the past as edible plantespecially to prepare soups. As the plantmatured, it lost its juiciness becoming stringand being used for animal feed. Afterspecifically selection works we limited themain characteristics variability, we eliminatedatypical biotypes and the species performancesdramatically increased. The main use of theline is the edacious one because of its exceptionproperties : juiciness of shoots and leaves, yieldpotential, over 22 t/ha and last but not least redor garnet natural colour present all over theplant.Figure 2. Seedling details: entire plant, upper andunderside of the leafRESULTS AND DISCUSSIONSBreeding works ended obtaining until now 3new valuable lines with different applicationdirections. Also a rich germplasm collectionwas gathered containing valuable lines indifferent breeding state, one of them grown forthe first time in our country and would bepresented in our future works.The obtained lines are the following:L1-Amaranthus retroflexusThis line (Figure 2) comes from an endemiclocal population discovered in the Buzaumountain side, Lopatari locality composed250Figure 3. L1 crop and inflorescence detailL4- Amaranthus caudatusThis line (Figure 3 and 4) was cultivated alsofor the first time in our country, was purchasedthrough a biologic material exchange with aprivate Dutch collector. This species iscollectively called ”elephant trunk”, similar