Cereals

Contents:

 

Cereal Types

After Garrard 1999

Common Name

Wild form

Domestic Form

Einkorn wheat

Triticum boeoticum Boiss

Triticum monococcum L

Emmer wheat

Triticum dicoccoides (Korn) Schweinf

Triticum dicoccum Schub

Hard wheat

 

Triticum durum Desf

Bread wheat

 

Triticum aestivum L

2-row barley

Hordeum spontaneum C. Koch

Hordeum distictum L

6-row barley

 

Hordeum vulgare L

Rye

Secale montanum Guss

Secale cereale L

 

Benefits of Domesticated over Wild forms of Wheat

After Wenke 1999 (p.289)

 

Wild Wheat

Domesticated Wheat

Distribution

Limited by temperature, soil and moisture.

Can be widely scattered and difficult to harvest

Much more tolerant of difficult conditions.

Grows more densely than wild forms and is therefore easier to harvest

Rachis

Brittle when ripe, so detaches easily at touch or by wind action and is therefore difficult to collect

Much tougher rachis, which means that the grain stays attached to the plant when touched or in high winds – this makes it easier to harvest by sickle and other human action

Kernel Type

Enclosed in tough husks (glumes) which are indigestible by humans and therefore have to be manually removed

Glumes are much less tough and are much easier to separate from the grain

Kernel Numbers

Only 2-row, so not very productive

6-row, so very productive

 

Characteristics of Different Cereals

After Garrard 1999

  • Between Species
    • Wheat vs. barley
      • Higher nutritional value than barley
      • Less tolerant to poor soils, dry conditions and salinity
    • Emmer vs. einkorn
      • Einkorn copes better with colder conditions
    • 2-Row vs. 6-Row
      • 6-row has a higher yield but is susceptible to bird damage
    • Rye
      • Can grow on acid soils
      • More cold resistant than wheat or barley
  • Native Habitats
    • Wild einkorn, emmer and barley
      • Oak-pistachio woodland
      • Pistachio-almond woodland-steppe
    • Wild barley
      • Throughout all Levantine and northern Iranian regions
    • Wild einkorn
      • Most dense in Turkey, northeast Iraq and western Iran
    • Wild emmer
      • Central and southern Levant
    • Rye
      • Not widely exploited in southwest Asia

Copyright (text and images) Andie Byrnes 2005, unless otherwise stated