The influences of seed—nursery environment upon genecological characteristics of 20 medusahead strains was studied. Environmentally induced variation was observed in germination, early height development, and winter survival. Small, but significant, variation in dates of spike emergence and anthesis, caused by differences in seed—nursery environment, were observed. Results suggest that the common practice of attaching genecological significance to wild—grown seed may be subject to error, especially in germination and early phenological stages following germination.