Subject	Data analysis (Agricultural and Biological Science)
Specific subject area	Agronomy and Crop Science
Type of data	Tables and Figures
How data were acquired	All data were collected from pot experiments under controlled greenhouse conditions on a set of wild relatives of wheat belonging to 12 Triticum and Aegilops species, such as T. boeoticum Bioss., T. urartu Gandilyan., T. durum Def., T. aestivum L., Ae. speltoides Tausch., Ae. tauschii Coss., Ae. caudata L., Ae. umbellulata Zhuk., Ae. neglecta L., Ae. cylindrica Host., Ae. crassa Boiss., and Ae. triuncialis. Data presented in tables and figures were obtained by measuring a set of physiological traits and some features related to root system architecture (RSA) under two control and water deficit stress conditions. Three selection indices were used to rank the accessions based on information of multiple traits. All data were subjected to statistical analysis using package ‘metan’ in R software.
Data format	Raw and analyzed
Parameters for data collection	A controlled greenhouse condition was used to collect the dataset. The experimental data consisted of a set of features related to root system architecture (RSA) and physiological traits including root fresh weight (RFW), root dry weight (RDW), root tissue density (RTD), specific root length (SRL), root diameter (RD), root branch number (RBN), root surface area (RA), total root surface area (TSA), root volume (RV), shoot fresh weight (SFW), shoot dry weight (SDW), shoot-to-root fresh weight ratio (SRF), shoot-to-root dry weight ratio (SRD), relative chlorophyll content (SPAD), leaf temperature (LT), stomatal conductance (Gs), initial fluorescence (Fo), maximum fluorescence (Fm), maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm), maximum primary yield of photochemistry of PSII (Fv/Fo), relative water content (RWC), shoot fresh weight (SFW), and shoot dry weight (SDW).
Description of data collection	A greenhouse pot experiment was performed in 2015–2016 at the Crop Production and Breeding Department, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran. Five seeds from each accession were planted into plastic pots (40-cm height and 20-cm diameter) filled with a mixture of dry soil and sand in a ratio of 3:1 (2 kg). All pots were arranged in a factorial experiment based on a randomized complete block with two replications under an optimal growing photoperiod (16/8 h light/dark cycle) and temperature (25/20°C day/night). The water-deficit treatment was determined based on a method proposed by Souza et al. (2000) and started at the three-leaf stage of seedling growth. Seedling plants were sampled after 30 days of stress treatment. At this stage of experiment, 23 traits belonging to physiological, root phenology, and biomass features were recorded on seedling plants.
Data source location	Department of Crop Production and Breeding, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran.
Data accessibility	The raw data associated to this article are provided on Mendeley dataset http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/84kmmmgvvr.1
Related research article	[1] A. Pour-Aboughadareh, J. Ahmadi, A.A. Mehrabi, A. Etminan, M. Moghaddam, K.H.M. Siddique. Physiological responses to drought stress in wild relatives of wheat: implications for wheat improvement, Acta Physiol. Plant. 39(2017) 106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-017-2403-z