Secale cereale
Secale
cereal rye, common rye, cultivated annual rye, cultivated rye, rye, seigle, seigle cultivé
rye
(35)50-120(300) cm.
25-120(300) cm.
open;
auricles usually present, 0.5-1 mm;
ligules membranous, truncate, often lacerate;
blades flat or involute.
(3)4-12 mm wide, usually glabrous.
laterally compressed, distichous spikes;
middle internodes 2-4 mm, with 1 spikelet per node, spikelets strongly ascending;
disarticulation in the rachises, below the spikelets, rachises not or tardily disarticulating in cultivated strains.
(2) 4.5-12(19) cm, often nodding when mature;
disarticulation tardy, in the rachises, at the nodes, or not occurring.
10-18 mm, with 2(3) florets;
florets bisexual.
8-20 mm, keels scabrous, terminating in awns, awns 1-3 mm;
lemmas 14-18 mm, awns 7-50 mm;
anthers about 7 mm.
8-20 mm, shorter than the adjacent lemmas, linear to subulate, scabrous, margins hyaline, 1-veined, keeled, keels terminating in an awn, awns to 35 mm;
lemmas 8-19 mm, strongly laterally compressed, strongly keeled, keels conspicuously scabrous distally, scabrules 0.6-1.3 mm, apices tapering to a scabrous awn, awns 2-50 mm;
anthers 3, 2.3-12 mm, yellow, x = 7.
R.
= 14, 21, 28.
Secale cereale
Secale
Secale cereale is one of the world's most important cereal grasses; it is also widely used in North America for soil stabilization and, particularly in Canada, for whisky. When dry, the spike is often distinctly nodding. Frederiksen and Petersen (1998) placed cultivated plants with a non-disarticulating rachis into Secale cereale L. subsp. cereale, and wild or weedy plants with more fragile rachises into S. cereale subsp. ancestrale Zhuk.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Secale is a genus of three species. All are native to the Mediterranean region and western Asia; two species have been collected in the Flora region. Secale cereale is cultivated as a crop and used along roadsides to prevent soil erosion, and is established in the Flora region. Secale strictum has been cultivated experimentally; it is not established in the Flora region.
Unlike other cereal grasses such as Triticum, Hordeum, and Avena, species of Secale are outcrossing, although 5. sylvestre Host is reported to be self-compatible. All three species are diploids. Remains of cultivated rye dating to 6000 B.C. have been found in Turkey.
xTriticosecale is an artificially derived hybrid between Triticum and Secale that is now widely cultivated (see p. 261).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Plants annual or biennial; rachises not or tardily disarticulating; lemmas 14-18 mm long | S. cereale |
1. Plants perennial; rachises readily disarticulating; lemmas 8-16 mm long | S. strictum |
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WildflowerSearch
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- Local floras: CA, OR, WA
- Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, IL Wildflowers, KS Wildflowers, LA Plants, MD Biodiversity, MI Flora, MN Wildflowers, MO Plants, PNW Herbaria
- WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
