Triticum aestivum
Triticum monococcum
ble commun, ble cultive, bread wheat, common wheat, soft wheat, wheat
einkorn, petit epeautre, small spelt
14-150 cm;
nodes glabrous or pubescent;
internodes usually hollow, even immediately below the spikes.
to 120 cm;
nodes pilose;
internodes mostly hollow, solid for 1 cm below the spikes.
6-15(20) mm wide, glabrous or pubescent.
6-7 mm wide, pubescent.
(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.
4-9 cm, strongly flattened, wider than thick;
rachises glabrous or sparsely ciliate at the nodes and margins, not enlarged at the base of the glumes;
internodes 1.4-2.5 mm, not disarticulating or disarticulating only with pressure, dispersal units wedge-shaped.
10-15 mm, appressed or ascending, with 3-9 florets, 2-5 seed-forming.
10-12 mm, elliptical to ovate, with 2-3 florets, usually only 1 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.
6-8(13) mm, usually coriaceous and tightly appressed to the lower florets, sometimes chartaceous and only loosely appressed to the florets, 2-keeled, 2-toothed;
lemmas 8-11 mm, lower 2 lemmas awned, awns 3-8 cm;
paleas splitting at maturity.
amber;
endosperm flinty.
mealy to flinty.
AuBD.
Ab.
= 42.
= 14.
Triticum aestivum
Triticum monococcum
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 monococcum is the domesticated derivative of T. boeoticum. Its primary range extends from the Balkans and Romania through the Crimea and Caucasus to northern Iraq and western Iran, and south to northern Africa. It was originally introduced to the Flora region as a food crop, but is now used primarily for plant breeding. It is still grown as a crop plant in some parts of the Balkans and in Romania.
Plants that originated from a spontaneous mutation and have tough rachises and chartaceous glumes that loosely enclose, but do not conceal, the florets have been named Triticum sinskajae A.A. Filat. & Kurkiev.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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