THE UNIVERSAL COMPENDIUM






The Fourteen Species of Wheat

Species Common name  
Fourteen Chromosomes
Triticum aegilopoides Wild einkorn  
T. monococcum Einkorn  
Twenty-Eight Chromosomes      
Tritcum dicoccoides Wild emmer  
T. dicoccum Emmer  
T. durum Macaroni wheat First appeared 1st century BC, Greco-Roman period
T. persicum Persian wheat Of no great commercial importance today
T. turgidum Rivet wheat Of no great commercial importance today
T. polonicum Polish wheat Of no great commercial importance today
T. timopheevi [none] Grown sparsely in western Georgia (ex-USSR)
Forty-two Chromosomes
Triticum aestivum Common wheat One of the three true bread wheat which account for 90% of all wheat being grown today.
T. sphaerococcum Shot wheat One of the three true bread wheat which account for 90% of all wheat being grown today.
T. compactum Club wheat One of the three true bread wheat which account for 90% of all wheat being grown today.
T. spelta Spelt Grown sparsely in western Georgia (ex-USSR), it was once the principal wheat grown in central Europe.
T. macha Macha wheat Grown sparsely in western Georgia (ex-USSR)


Notes


Today's thousands of wheat varieties are all from crosses in the fourteen species shown in this table.

Sources

Solomon, H. K. and W. W. Woys. Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, vol. 3. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2003.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





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