Triticum aestivum
Triticum polonicum
ble commun, ble cultive, bread wheat, common wheat, soft wheat, wheat
polish wheat
14-150 cm;
nodes glabrous or pubescent;
internodes usually hollow, even immediately below the spikes.
100-160 cm;
nodes glabrous;
internodes mostly hollow, solid for 1 cm below the spikes.
6-15(20) mm wide, glabrous or pubescent.
to 20 mm wide, glabrous or 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.
7-16 cm, wider than thick or about as wide as thick;
rachises enlarged at the base of the glumes, sparsely hairy at the nodes and margins, not disarticulating.
10-15 mm, appressed or ascending, with 3-9 florets, 2-5 seed-forming.
25^10 mm, with 4-5 florets, 2-3 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.
20-40 mm, often concealing the florets, lanceolate, chartaceous, loosely appressed to the lower florets, with 1 prominent keel, apices acute, terminating in a tooth;
lemmas to 30 mm, chartaceous, toothed or awned, awns on the lower 2 lemmas to 15 cm;
paleas not splitting at maturity.
mealy to flinty.
flinty.
AuBD.
AuB.
= 42.
= 28.
Triticum aestivum
Triticum polonicum
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 polonicum is a minor, durum-like, spring wheat species. It is grown in the Mediterranean basin and central Asia on a small scale. In the Flora region, it is grown principally for plant breeding. It differs from other domesticated wheats in its unusually long, chartaceous glumes and lemmas. The epithet "polonicum" reflects an early European botanical bias; the species did not originate in Poland.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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