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TRITICUM L. Wheat
Plants hermaphroditic, caespitose, annual. Culms erect or ascending or decumbent or geniculate, glabrous or hairy; internodes
solid or hollow, terete. Leaves cauline, not distinctly distichous; sheaths terete, margins open; auricles present or absent;
ligules membranous; blades flat or involute, linear, lax. Spikes not always distinctly bilateral, rachis persistent or
disarticulating. Spikelet solitary at inflorescence nodes, ascending or appressed or appearing sunken, laterally
compressed or terete, disarticulation above glumes, awned or awnless, sessile or subsessile; florets 3-7,
reduced floret at apex, callus glabrous, rachilla not extending beyond upper floret; glumes 2, 5-11-veined, opposite
relative to floret position, nearly equal, shorter or longer than first floret, awned or awnless; lemmas 5-11-veined,
coriaceous to indurate, glabrous or hairy, apex entire to incised, awned or awnless; awns apical when present,
straight; paleas 2-veined, awnless, glabrous. Stamens 3; anthers yellow. Caryopses adnate to lemma and/or palea,
dorsiventrally compressed, ellipsoid. Base chromosome number x=7.
A genus of about 30 species. The genus is adapted to temperate climates, open sites, and dry grasslands.
Wheat (T. aestivum) belongs to this genus. Some authors separate Aegilops from Triticum. Aegilops is treated here
as Aegilops as a synonym of Triticum.
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