Future Directions for Quinoa and Related Species

Quinoa production in low-elevation environments is hampered by a relative lack of cultivated germplasm that is readily available, genetically diverse, and adapted to lowland temperate or subtropical production conditions. A potential long-term solution to this problem is to create breeding populations that combine favorable agronomic characteristics of the domesticated germplasm with favorable adaptive characteristics of quinoa's close wild relatives, Chenopodium berlandieri (aka pitseed goosefoot) and C. hircinum (aka avian goosefoot). The former represents a potentially massive gene pool distributed in North America as ecotypes adapted to torrid coastal regions (var. boscianum), mid-elevation monsoon steppes (var. sinuatum and ssp. nuttaliae), mid-latitude cool-humid coasts (var. macrocalycium), and disturbed mid-latitude steppes, semi-deserts, and forests (var. zschackei). The latter includes less-characterized ecotypes dispersed through the Pampas and into hot semi-desert environments in southeastern South America. Intertaxa hybrids are largely fertile and segregants carrying desirable combinations of agronomic traits can be easily identified and selected in hybrid-progeny populations.