Triticum aestivum
Triticum durum
ble commun, ble cultive, bread wheat, common wheat, soft wheat, wheat
blé dur, durum wheat, hard wheat, macaroni wheat
14-150 cm;
nodes glabrous or pubescent;
internodes usually hollow, even immediately below the spikes.
60-160 cm;
nodes glabrous;
internodes mostly hollow, solid for 1 cm below the spikes.
6-15(20) mm wide, glabrous or pubescent.
7-16 mm wide, usually glabrous.
(3.5)6-18 cm, usually thicker than wide to about as thick as wide, wider than thick in compact forms;
rachises shortly ciliate at the nodes and margins, not disarticulating.
4-11 cm, about as wide as thick, never branched;
rachises ciliate to partially ciliate at the nodes and margins, not disarticulating;
internodes 3-6 mm.
10-15 mm, appressed or ascending, with 3-9 florets, 2-5 seed-forming.
10-15 mm, with 5-7 florets, 2-4 seed-forming.
6-12 mm, coriaceous, loosely appressed to the lower florets, usually keeled in the distal 1/2, sometimes prominently keeled to the base, terminating in a tooth or awn, awns to 4 cm;
lemmas 10-15 mm, toothed or awned, awns to 12 cm;
paleas not splitting at maturity.
8-12 mm, coriaceous, loosely appressed to the lower florets, with 1 prominent keel, terminating in a tooth, tooth to 0.3 cm;
lemmas 10-12 mm, lower 2 lemmas awned, awns to 23 cm;
paleas not splitting at maturity.
mealy to flinty.
usually flinty, sometimes mealy.
AuBD.
AuB.
= 42.
= 28.
Triticum aestivum
Triticum durum
Triticum aestivum is the most widely cultivated wheat. Both winter and spring types are grown in the Flora region. In addition to being grown for bread flour, T. aestivum cultivars are used for pastry-grade flour, Oriental-style soft noodles, and cereals.
Club wheats, sometimes called Triticum compactum Host, are cultivated in the Pacific Northwest for export to Asian markets. They have short (3.5-6 cm), compressed spikes, with up to 25 spikelets having 2-6 florets. Their spike shape varies from oblong or oval with uniformly distributed spikelets to club-shaped with spikelets crowded towards the apex.
No wild hexaploid progenitors of Triticum aestivum are known, but the two distinguishing characteristics of wild Tritcum species, fragile rachises breaking into wedge-shaped units and closely appressed glumes, are found in plants cultivated in Tibet and named T. aestivum subsp. tibetanum J.Z. Shao.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Triticum durum is a domesticated spring wheat that is grown in temperate climates throughout the world. In the Flora region, it is grown in the Canadian prairies and northern Great Plains as a spring wheat, and in the southwestern United States and Mexico as a winter wheat. Triticum durum is typically used for macaroni-type pastas, semolina, and bulghur. Durum imparts a yellowish color to bread, and is the traditional wheat for flat breads and pita. Cultivars grown in the Flora region represent a minor sampling of the overall diversity in the species.
The commercial cultivar Kamut® is durum wheat. Grown in the Flora region and worldwide, it encompasses a variable collection of forms. Kamut® has also been identified as Triticum turanicum Jakubz. (a durum-like wheat from Iran) or T. polonicum, although its presumed Egyptian origin and spike morphology do not agree with the original concept of these species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
Go Botany, 
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
