Morphological Characterization of 1322 Winter Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Varieties from EU Referent Collection

The wheat grain yields increased in EU from 4.98 t ha−1 to 5.45 t ha−1 in the periods from 2006 to 2014 to from 2015 to 2023. It is hypothesized that changes in specific morphological traits over the years resulted in grain yield increase due to the utilization of new wheat varieties in production. To highlight the current status and changes over time, we evaluated a comprehensive panel of 1322 wheat varieties that included testing of morphological traits of varieties recognized from period from 2006 till 2023. Positive relation of registration year with traits such as seed color, glaucosity of neck of culm, plant height, ear length, scurs and awns length, ear color, and shape of the beak of the lower glume were obtained. The most significant changes over time resulted in a darker color of the seed, decreased area of hairiness of the convex surface of the apical rachis segment, enhanced glaucosity of the neck of the culm and decreased frequency of the plants with recurved flag leaves. It was shown that traits such as the frequency of plants with recurved flag leaves, time of emergence, glaucosity of flag leaves, existence of scurs and awns, and area of the hairiness of the convex surface of the apical rachis segment had significant decreases over time. This research demonstrated the importance of twelve morphological traits in the varietal improvement of grain yield over the time from 2006 to 2023.