Hungarian vetch (Vicia pannonica Crantz.) is an important forage crop in both central Turkey (CT) and central European countries. It can be grown in CT as winter crop, but frequent spring droughts cause yield losses. Our objectives were (I) to investigate agro-biological variation among populations, (II) to identify useful plant characters and (III) to develop selection strategies. Forty-five accessions of both var. pannonica and var. purpurascens were evaluated for the 11 plant characters in 2002/03 cropping season. Var. pannonica was late flowering, had more stems and seeds per pod, and longer stems and pods. Var. purpurascens had earlier flowering, more days to physiological maturity, more pods, greater plant biomass and heavier seeds. As var. purpurascens was early flowering, its longer seed-filling period is likely to contribute to greater seed size and weight. However, in var. pannonica, late flowering and ensuing delayed maturity caused strong negative associations between days-toharvest and other characters. If the earliness, higher biomass and seed size from var. purpurascens, and the many long stems and long pods from var. pannonica could be incorporated into one or more genotypes through Mendelian crossings, seed and hay yields would be substantially increased.
