A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize. Edible grains from other plant families, such as buckwheat and quinoa, are pseudocereals. Most cereals are annuals, producing one crop from each planting, though rice is sometimes grown as a perennial. Winter varieties are hardy enough to be planted in the autumn, becoming dormant in the winter, and harvested in spring or early summer; spring varieties are planted in spring and harvested in late summer. The term cereal is derived from the name of the Roman goddess of grain crops and fertility, Ceres.
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a staple food around the world. The many species of wheat together make up the genus Triticum ; the most widely grown is common wheat. The archaeological record suggests that wheat was first cultivated in the regions of the Fertile Crescent around 9600 BC. Botanically, the wheat kernel is a caryopsis, a type of fruit.
The oat, sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed, which is known by the same name. Oats appear to have been domesticated as a secondary crop, as their seeds resembled those of other cereals closely enough for them to be included by early cultivators. Oats tolerate cold winters less well than cereals such as wheat, barley, and rye, but need less summer heat and more rain, making them important in areas such as Northwest Europe that have cool wet summers. They can tolerate low-nutrient and acid soils. Oats grow thickly and vigorously, allowing them to outcompete many weeds, and compared to other cereals are relatively free from diseases.
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than other cereals, making it useful in those regions; its vigorous growth suppresses weeds and provides abundant forage for animals early in the year. It is a member of the wheat tribe (Triticeae) which includes the cereals wheat and barley. Rye grain is used for bread, beer, rye whiskey, and animal fodder. In Scandinavia, rye was a staple food in the Middle Ages, and rye crispbread remains a popular food in the region. Europe produces around half of the world's rye; relatively little is traded between countries. A wheat-rye hybrid, triticale, combines the qualities of the two parent crops and is produced in large quantities worldwide. In European folklore, the Roggenwolf is a carnivorous corn demon or Feldgeist.
Rusts are fungal plant pathogens of the order Pucciniales causing plant fungal diseases.
Triticale is a hybrid of wheat (Triticum) and rye (Secale) first bred in laboratories during the late 19th century in Scotland and Germany. Commercially available triticale is almost always a second-generation hybrid, i.e., a cross between two kinds of primary (first-cross) triticales. As a rule, triticale combines the yield potential and grain quality of wheat with the disease and environmental tolerance of rye. Only recently has it been developed into a commercially viable crop. Depending on the cultivar, triticale can more or less resemble either of its parents. It is grown mostly for forage or fodder, although some triticale-based foods can be purchased at health food stores and can be found in some breakfast cereals.
Hordeum is a genus of annual and perennial plants in the grass family. They are native throughout the temperate regions of Africa, Eurasia, and the Americas.
The founder crops or primary domesticates are a group of flowering plants that were domesticated by early farming communities in Southwest Asia and went on to form the basis of agricultural economies across Eurasia. As originally defined by Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf, they consisted of three cereals, four pulses, and flax. Subsequent research has indicated that many other species could be considered founder crops. These species were amongst the first domesticated plants in the world.
Triticeae is a botanical tribe within the subfamily Pooideae of grasses that includes genera with many domesticated species. Major crop genera found in this tribe include wheat, barley, and rye; crops in other genera include some for human consumption, and others used for animal feed or rangeland protection. Among the world's cultivated species, this tribe has some of the most complex genetic histories. An example is bread wheat, which contains the genomes of three species with only one being a wheat Triticum species. Seed storage proteins in the Triticeae are implicated in various food allergies and intolerances.
Hordeum jubatum, with common names foxtail barley, bobtail barley, squirreltail barley, and intermediate barley, is a perennial plant species in the grass family Poaceae. It occurs wild mainly in northern North America and adjacent northeastern Siberia. However, as it escaped often from gardens it can be found worldwide in areas with temperate to warm climates, and is considered a weed in many countries. The species is a polyploid and originated via hybridization of an East Asian Hordeum species with a close but extinct relative of Californian H. brachyantherum. It is grown as an ornamental plant for its attractive inflorescences and when done flowering for its inflorescence.
Hordeum murinum is a species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae, commonly known as wall barley or false barley. It is a close relative of cultivated barley.
Wheat yellow leaf virus (WYLV) is a wheat (Triticum spp. L.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), rye (Secale cereale M.Bieb.), and oat (Avena sativa L.) pathogenic virus of the family Closteroviridae. WYLV virions are 1600–1850 nm in length and 10 nm in diameter. The virus, like other members of its genus, is transmitted by aphids. Identified vectors include Rhopalosiphum padi L. and R. maidis Fitch. (Aphididae). The virus has been identified in crop plants in Japan, China, and Italy. Native host plants include Italian ryegrass (Festuca perennis Lam.) in Europe and Agropyron tsukushiense var. transiens Ohwi in Japan. The virus proliferates in the phloem of its host plants, interfering with the plant's ability to produce sufficient chlorophyll (Chlorosis), causing the leaves to yellow and the plant to die.
A doubled haploid (DH) is a genotype formed when haploid cells undergo chromosome doubling. Artificial production of doubled haploids is important in plant breeding.
A crop wild relative (CWR) is a wild plant closely related to a domesticated plant. It may be a wild ancestor of the domesticated (cultivated) plant or another closely related taxon.
Barley, a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikelets and making it much easier to harvest. Its use then spread throughout Eurasia by 2000 BC. Barley prefers relatively low temperatures and well-drained soil to grow. It is relatively tolerant of drought and soil salinity but is less winter-hardy than wheat or rye.
Plant breeding is the science of changing the traits of plants in order to produce desired characteristics. It has been used to improve the quality of nutrition in products for humans and animals. The goals of plant breeding are to produce crop varieties that boast unique and superior traits for a variety of applications. The most frequently addressed agricultural traits are those related to biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, grain or biomass yield, end-use quality characteristics such as taste or the concentrations of specific biological molecules and ease of processing.
Pollination bags, sometimes called crossing bags, isolation bags or exclusion bags, are containers made of various different materials for the purpose of controlling pollination for plants.
Hordeum spontaneum, commonly known as wild barley or spontaneous barley, is the wild form of the grass in the family Poaceae that gave rise to the cereal barley. Domestication is thought to have occurred on two occasions, first about ten thousand years ago in the Fertile Crescent and again later, several thousand kilometres further east.
Hordeum chilense is a species of wild barley native to Chile and Argentina. A diploid, it is used or being explored for use in barley crop improvement due to its resistance to Zymoseptoria tritici septoria leaf blotch, its high seed yellow pigment content (YPC), and its cytoplasmic male sterility. It is a parent, along with durum wheat, of the hybrid crop Tritordeum.
Barley is known to be more environmentally-tolerant than other cereal crops, in terms of soil pH, mineral nutrient availability, and water availability. Because of this, much research is being done on barley plants in order to determine whether or not there is a genetic basis for this environmental hardiness.
