Phenotypic Description of the USDA Faba Bean Collection.

Faba bean is an underutilized food and feed legume.  Faba bean may be consumped as a vegetable, seed or used in flour mixes.  To improve faba utilization, characterization of the germplasm available is important for use by breeders and agronomists.  Descriptor data was collected on the USDA faba bean (Vicia faba) held by the ARS Plant Germplasm Introduction and Research Unit located in Pullman, WA on the Washington State University campus.  Unreplicated microplots were planted in 2009 and 2010 to complete descriptor data of yield components for faba bean.  These include days to fisrt flower, number of pods per plant, number of seed per pod, and harvested seed yield per plot.  Data collected for the last two years will be presented.