To obtain knowledge about the phenological adaptation of wild Cicer, we studied Israeli populations of Cicer judaicum and quantified the flowering time and morphological vernalisation response. Vernalisation treatment led to a similar advance in flowering time in Israeli C. judaicum and in Turkish C. reticulatum. The two wild taxa, however, showed differential response in main shoot development following the vernalisation treatment. Between- and within-population variance components of the measured traits were estimated. Phenological variation between populations exceeded the variation between accessions within populations. We suggest that increasing the number of sampling sites at the expense of more intensive collection within sites is likely to optimise collection strategy for this species.