System to Uniquely Name Wheat Plant Structures.

Uniquely naming wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) plant parts is useful for communicating plant development research and the effects of environmental stresses on normal wheat development. Over the past 30+ years, several naming systems have been proposed for wheat shoot, leaf, spike, spikelet, floret, and caryopsis structures. While these systems work very well in most field situations, several problems have emerged that can lead to confusion in uniquely naming all possible tillers and leaves. This confusion is unnecessary and leads to errors in communication that can be avoided. This paper describes a naming system that extends the previous systems so that all canopy structures are uniquely identified and additionally incorporates a phenological component if desired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]