Abstract

Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) is a herbaceous and medicinal crop which is one of the most important export crops for countries such as Iran. This study was conducted to study the effects of drought stress on agronomic traits in cumin landraces of Iran. This experiment was conducted in simple lattice design, with two replications in drought stress and non-stress conditions. Nine land races (49 sub landraces) from different origins of Iran were studied in this experiment. The characteristics such as number of umbels per plant, number of seed per umbels, number of seeds per plant, dry matter weight, 1000- seed weight and seed yield were evaluated. The results showed that drought stress significantly influenced some studied traits. There were significant differences among land races for number of seeds per plant and seed yield (P<0.05). The landraces of Yazd, Southern-Khorasan and Pars had the highest seed yield among evaluated landraces. Also these cumin landraces could be proposed for cultivation in arid regions with hot climate. It seems that in drought stress condition number of seeds per plant was the greatest factor that is affected by drought stress. This result could be proposed that cumin is a drought tolerance crop.

Key words: Cumin, drought stress, seed, yield.