Before the introduction of agriculture, almost all of the world’s landscapes were covered mostly by perennial plants
growing in mixed stands[1]; today, agriculture’s impact on the Earth has been amplified by industrial farming, but the
fundamental problem has its origins 10,000 years ago, in the domestication of those annual crops that are still the staples
of the global food supply. In contrast, annual crops such as cereals, grain legumes, and oilseeds typically provide less
protection against soil erosion, waste water and nutrients, store less carbon below ground, and are less tolerant of pests
than are perennial plant communities. Perennial crops have substantial ecological and economic benefits. Their longer
growing seasons and more extensive root systems make them more competitive against weeds and more effective at
capturing nutrients and water.In particular, the development of perennial wheat could have a major impact in wintercereal-
growing regions. These cool-season cereals can be hybridised with a wide range of perennial species. For decades,
wheat geneticists have crossed many genotypes of these annuals with many genotypes of perennial relatives, usually with
the goal of introgressing genes for disease or insect resistance. Researchers at The Land Institute, Washington State
University (WSU), and with the Future Farming CRC are now making such crosses, primarily using Thinopyrum species,
with the explicit objective of developing perennial wheat. Species of the genus Thinopyrum have been hybridized with
wheat more often than have any other perennial species [2] because of the ease of producing partially fertile hybrids, often
without embryo rescue [3]. Thinopyrum intermedium (2n=42) is rhizomatous, and two other commonly utilized species,
Th. ponticum (2n=70) and Th. elongatum (2n=14) are caespitose. The objective of our research is to develop new perennial
wheat that produces crops of grain similar to annual wheat and adequate resistance for environment. To do that, we used
octoploid trititrigia, "Ganmai 8", "Ganmai 9"and "Zhang 2" crossing with perennial grasses (Thinopyrum intermedium).
We have obtained hybrids between annual wheat and perennials during the past few years.