Gideon Ladizinsky – författare

This book emerged from a series of lectures on crop evolution at the Faculty of Agriculture of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. While many textbooks are available on general evolution, only a few deal with evolution under domestication. This book is a modest attempt to bridge this gap. It was written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of crop evolution, ethnobotany, plant breeding and related subjects. Evolution under domestication is unique in the general field of plant evolution for three main reasons: (a) it is recent, having started not much more than 10 000 years ago with the emergence of agri­ culture; (b) the original plant material, i. e. the wild progenitors of many important crop plants, still grow in their natural habitats; (c) man played in this process. These factors enable a more reliable a major role assessment of the impact of different evolutionary forces such as hybridization, migration, selection and drift under new circumstances. Interestingly, a great part of evolution under domestication has been unconscious and a result of agricultural practices which have created a new selection criteria, mostly against characters favored by natural selec­ tion. Introducing crop plants to new territories exposed them to different ecological conditions enhancing selection for new characters. Diversity in characters associated with crop plants evolution is virtually absent in theit wild progenitors and most of it has evolved under domestication.

At the end of the 1960s the senior author initiated a study on the chickpea's wild relatives followed by similar attempts for broad bean, fenugreek, common vetch, bitter vetch, and lentil.

The book is based on the author's life time experience in exploring and researching the genus Avena. It describes some great events in oat research and minor stories along the way. It will be of interest and value to all those working with oats and to students and scientists of crop evolution, including those dealing with collecting and conserving wild genetic resources.A first part deals with the morphology and taxonomy of the genus and a classification based on the biological species concept is presented. A further part is devoted to the author’s research accomplishments in this genus. It describes morphological characters distinguishing between diploids and tetraploids of series Eubarbatae, the genetic relationships between them, and the mode of origin of the tetraploid form. The section Denticulatae, to which the common oat belongs, is extensively treated. Further, oat domestication and the newly domesticated protein rich A. magna are described. A third part dealswith wild genetic resources of oat.