Difference between revisions of "Triticum durum"

Revision as of 20:50, 5 November 2020

Illustrator: Cindy Roché, Hana Pazdírková, Christine Roberts

Culms 60-160 cm; nodes glabrous; internodes mostly hollow, solid for 1 cm below the spikes. Blades 7-16 mm wide, usually glabrous. Spikes 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. Spikelets 10-15 mm, with 5-7 florets, 2-4 seed-forming. Glumes 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. Endosperm usually flinty, sometimes mealy. Haplomes AuB. 2n = 28.

Alta., Man., Sask.

Discussion

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.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa