Culms 14-150 cm; nodes
glabrous or pubescent; internodes
usually hollow, even immediately below the spikes. Blades 6-15(20) mm wide, glabrous or pubescent. Spikes (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. Spikelets
10-15 mm, appressed or ascending, with 3-9 florets, 2-5 seed-forming. Glumes 6-12 mm, coriaceous, loosely appressed
to the lower florets, usually keeled in the upper 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. Endosperm mealy to flinty. HaplomesAuBD. 2n = 42.
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.
Annual or winter-annual, 5-12 dm, usually branched below; lvs flat, 2-10(-20) mm wide; spikes mostly 5-10 cm, glumes subequal, 6-10 mm; lemmas 7-12 mm, similar to the glumes, indurate but with scarious margins, the tip broadly lobed and mucronate, or with an awn to 7 cm; anthers 2.5 mm; 2n=42. Eurasian cultigen, often spontaneous in fields and along roadsides with us, probably never truly persistent, but repeatedly re-established.
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
Cronquist et al. 1977, Gould 1980, Heil et al 2013
Common Name: common wheat Duration: Annual Nativity: Non-Native Lifeform: Graminoid General: Annual grass, often a winter annual, erect stems 50-100 cm tall, freely branching at base. Vegetative: Glabrous sheath; ligules 0.5-1.5 mm long, entire; blades flat, sometimes very broad, 2-8 mm wide, glabrous or scabrous above, with prominent auricles. Inflorescence: Spikes 5-10 cm long, rachis continuous, flattened; spikelets broad, 3-5 flowered; glumes subequal, 6-9 mm long, indurate, strongly keeled towards one side, scabrous or densely hispid, unequally 5-7 nerved, only the keel nerve and sometimes a pair of lateral nerves conspicuous, awned from between 2 broad lobes, awns 1-4 mm long; lemmas 7-12 mm long, similar to glumes, with a mucronate tip or awn up to 7 cm long. Ecology: Found widespread where it has escaped cultivation, rarely becoming established. In the southwest it is sometimes found growing where hay was recently used for soil stabilization. Distribution: In cultivation worldwide, especially in the northern hemisphere. Notes: This is cultivated wheat, and it can occasionally escape cultivation and grow wild as well. There are many different varieties of wheat, so it is difficult to isolate specific varieties here. Can be confused with Hordeum vulgare (common barley), but pay attention to the lemmas of Triticum aestivum being densely hispid. Ethnobotany: Seeds of this grain crop used to make bread, porridge, used for feed, flour, gruel, and beverages. Etymology: Triticum is the classical Latin name for wheat, while aestivum means flowering, ripening or developing in summer. Synonyms: Triticum hybernum, T. macha, T. sativum, T. sphaerococcum, T. vulgare Editor: SBuckley, 2010, AHazelton 2015