Triticum boeoticum

Illustrator: Cindy Roché, Hana Pazdírková, Christine Roberts

Copyright: Utah State University

Culms to 160 cm, decumbent at the base; nodes pubescent; internodes mostly hollow, solid for 1 cm below the spike. Blades 5-15 mm wide, blue-green, hirsute, with long hairs over the veins, shorter hairs between the veins, hairs stiff. Spikes 5-14 cm, wider than thick; rachises densely ciliate at the nodes and margins; internodes 3-5 mm; disarticulation spon¬taneous, dispersal units wedge-shaped. Spikelets 12-17 mm, rectangular, with 2-3 florets, 1-2 seed-forming. Glumes 6-11 mm, coriaceous, tightly appressed to the lower florets, 2-keeled, with 2 prominent teeth; lemmas 10-14 mm, first (and sometimes the second) lemma awned, awns to 11 cm, third lemma usually unawned; paleas splitting at maturity; anthers 3-6 mm. Caryopses of the lowest floret in each spikelet usually blue, that of the second amber or red with blue mottling; endosperm flinty. Haplome Ab. 2n = 14.

Discussion

Triticum boeoticum is a wild diploid wheat that is native from the Balkans through the Caucasus to Iran and Afghanistan and south to Iraq. It is morph¬ologically similar to and, in its native range, sometimes sympatric with T. urartu, another wild diploid wheat. Triticum monococcum is the domesticated derivative of T. boeoticum.

Boissier published the combination for this species both as "Triticum baeoticum" and "T. boeoticum". Because the type specimen is from Boeotia [Greece], "boeoticum" is the correct spelling of the epithet.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.