industrial crops and products 27 ( 2 0 0 8 ) 400–403 available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/indcrop Short communication Development and growth of two Lesquerella species grown under different temperatures during the reproductive period A.F. Alvarez Prado a , E.L. Ploschuk b,∗ a INTA Balcarce, Unidad Integrada INTA Balcarce Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias UNMP, CC 276, 7620 Balcarce, Buenos Aires, Argentina b Departamento de Producci ´ on Vegetal, C´ atedra de Cultivos Industriales, Facultad de Agronom´ ıa (UBA), Av. San Mart´ ın 4453, 1417 Buenos Aires, Argentina article info Article history: Received 1 September 2007 Received in revised form 10 December 2007 Accepted 17 December 2007 Keywords: Lesquerella fendleri Lesquerella mendocina New crops Phenology Temperature Biomass allocation abstract The genus Lesquerella is a promising source of hydroxy fatty acids (HFA). Several species such as Lesquerella fendleri and Lesquerella mendocina are candidate crops for arid and semi-arid cropping systems. Several reports are available on the environmental effects on growth and yield in Lesquerella, but information on the effect of temperature on plant growth and devel- opment specifically during the reproductive period in Lesquerella is limited. The objective of this work was to determine the effect of two contrasting thermal regimes after flowering on time to maturity, plant growth and biomass allocation to the different organs in L. fendleri and L. mendocina. A greenhouse experiment was conducted with plants grown at a range of 11–23 ◦ C during the vegetative phase. After this stage, 50% of the plants of each species remained under the same temperature regime until maturity, whereas the other 50% was transferred to another module subjected to a range of 17–31 ◦ C until maturity. The duration of the reproductive phase was reduced by 23 days in plants of both species in the 17–31 ◦ C treatment compared to those at 11–23 ◦ C, although no differences were observed when the length of the reproductive phase was measured in thermal-time units. Total plant biomass for both species was 20% greater in the 11–23 ◦ C treatment. In L. fendleri, this increment occurred due to more vegetative shoot biomass, whereas in L. mendocina it was associated with greater reproductive and root biomass. No changes in biomass allocation were pro- duced by temperature in L. fendleri, while in L. mendocina the lower temperature regime increased allocation to the reproductive organs, at the expense of a lower allocation to veg- etative shoot. These results could be used to predict the specific temperature effects after flowering on yield under field conditions, and suggest that L. mendocina might be a promising perennial alternative for cooler sites. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The genus Lesquerella (Brassicaceae) is a potential industrial crop due to the hydroxy fatty acids (HFA) in its seeds (Dierig et ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +54 11 4524 8040/8075; fax: +54 11 4514 8730. E-mail address: ploschuk@ifeva.edu.ar (E.L. Ploschuk). al., 1993). It has approximately 100 species with annual, bien- nial and perennial habits (Rollins and Shaw, 1973). Lesquerella fendleri (A. Gray) S. Watson is a candidate for domestication because of its high seed and oil yield, low seed dormancy, 0926-6690/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2007.12.001