DEVELOPMENT

UC Cibola is a new variety of alfalfa which is non winter dormant, purple-flowered, upright-growing and expected to be best adapted to fields in Southern California heavily infested with root nematodes. UC Cibola was named for the Cibola Bridge built across the Colorado River by farmers of the Palo Verde and Cibola Valleys and Cibola, the name given the "seven cities of gold" for which the Spanish explorer Coronado searched.

BREEDING HISTORY & DESCRIPTION

UC Cibola is a synthetic variety produced from 100 parent plants selected from one variety and two experimental lines growing in a 3 year old alfalfa field planted in a sandy soil adjacent to the Colorado River near Blythe, CA. The soil was heavily infested with four genera of root nematodes and had been infested with blue alfalfa aphid (Acyrthosiphon kondoi Shinji) prior to the time superior plants were selected. Parents were 46, 26, and 28 plants, respectively, from the variety UC Salton, and the two experimental lines UC 76 and UC PX1971, which was released as germplasm in 1979, has resistance to root know nematode (Meloidogyne spp.). The parentage can be further traced to the nine basic germplasm sources in the following manner: M. Falcata 1%, Ladak 1%, M. varia 3%, Turkisatan 11%, Chilean 14%, Peruvian 2%, Indian 21%, African 46%, and Flemish 1%.