Abstract: This research was conducted to compare root development and some agricultural characteristics of wheat breeding cultivars and wheat landraces in Diyarbakir ecological conditions in Application Research Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Dicle, Turkey, during 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 growing seasons as randomized complete block design with 3 replications. Study materials consisted of Pehlivan, Svevo, Zenit, Firat-93 and Ege-88 durum wheat breeding cultivars, which are widely cultivated in the Southeastern Anatolia Region and Asure, Hevidi, Bagacak, Sorgul, Beyaziye and Mersiniye wheat landraces, which are cultivated in limited area of the same Region. Average values were calculated in wheat landraces and breeding cultivars for germination percentage (92.39 and 93.37%), primary root length (189.28 and 144.11 mm), the number of secondary roots (7.76 and 7.41), fresh root weight (2.55 and 1.99 g), dry root weight (0.229 and 0.198 g), the number of tillers at the beginning of winter (4.67 and 2.30), grain yield per plant (1.551 and 3.812 g plant^-1) and 1000 grain weight (39.82 and 44.07 g), respectively. At the end of the study, primary root length, the number of secondary root, fresh root weight, dry root weight, the number of tiller of the landraces were found to have higher values than those of breeding cultivars, but germination percentage, grain yield per plant and 1000 grain weight of the landraces were shown to be lower than those of breeding cultivars. According to experimental results, deeper and faster root development and over tillering can be often mentioned as characteristic features of landraces. Landraces gave the better performance in respect of rooting and tillering in the first stages of development than breeding cultivars, but they could not reflect these advantages to grain yield in latter stages of development. The first development traits of landraces should be evaluated in wheat breeding programs.