A field study was carried out under rainfed conditions during the growing season 2008/2009 in Maru (Northern Jordan) to evaluate the phenological variation using heat-accumulated system and its relation with yield in sixteen durum wheat genotypes. Grain yield was negatively correlated with growing degree days (GDDs) to maturity, while positively correlated with GDD to heading. Increasing GDD to heading resulted in higher grain yield, while increasing grain fill duration had little effect. Rapid grain fill rate was positively correlated with grain weight and negatively correlated with grain fill duration. Waha-1, Omrabi-5, and Massara-1 genotypes had the highest grain yields among genotypes studied. These three genotypes tended to have relatively longer preheading periods with early maturity. The results of this study indicate that Mediterranean-adapted cultivars would have long preheading periods, followed by short periods and high rates of grain fill and mature early to avoid late-season drought and high-temperature stress and to attain high yields. Therefore, it is recommended for the development of high yielding wheat cultivars adapted to semiarid environments to select the genotypes with early maturity and a relatively long time to heading. 1. Introduction Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. cv. durum) is an important cereal crop traditionally grown under rainfed conditions in the Mediterranean region (e.g., Jordan) and other marginal environments of the semiarid tropics. Drought and high temperature stress at the terminal of growing season usually constrain crop yield potential as these stresses coincide with the grain filling period in these regions [1–4]. The problem of heat stress is likely to become even worse in the future under global environmental change which has become one of the greatest challenges that humanity faces today. The latest Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects that the drought occurrence will increase especially for arid and semiarid regions and the global average temperatures in 2100 will be 1.8 to 4.0°C higher than the 1980–2000 average [5]. However, even when water is not a limiting factor (e.g., supplied by irrigation), lower yields were obtained in dry and semidry environments as a result of heat stress that occurs during anthesis and grain filling periods [2, 6], which imposes negative effects on wheat and other crops production. These stress factors have negative influences on the movement of photosynthetic products to the developing grains and inhibited starch synthesis; thus, it
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