Triticum aestivum L.

Spice In the field

Family: GRAMINEAE (POACEAE)

Genus: Triticum

Catalan common name: Blat. Blat escoat. Blat xeixa.

Spanish common name: Trigo candeal.

General distribution (Phytogeography): Asia

Uses and properties: Medicinal.

Life-forms: Terophyte.

Habitats: Cultivated species. Cultivated specie.

Characteristics: Wheat is a Gramineae that is only found in cultivated form or emerging sub spontaneously. It has been a species of vital importance for human nutrition; for this reason is not unusual that these species posses a great deal of polymorphisms, depending on the different varieties that have been breed throughout history. For example, the presence or lack of an awn, or the length of this appendage is quite a variable characteristic. Wheat forms a compact spike at the upper part of the stem, with the spikelets isolated at the nodes of the spike rachis. This characteristic amongst others allows it to be distinguished from barley (Hordeum spp.), which has three spikelets at each node.