83-502: Barley ( Hordeum vulgare ), 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
166-465: A sheaf ") and his son Beow ("Barley") are associated with the grain, or are possibly corn-gods; J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a poem "King Sheave" about them, and based a major element of his legendarium , the Old Straight Road from Middle-earth to the earthly paradise of Valinor , on their story. William of Malmesbury 's 12th century Chronicle tells the story of the related figure Sceafa as
249-499: A sod -forming perennial grass used in agriculture is Thinopyrum intermedium . Grasses are used as raw material for a multitude of purposes, including construction and in the composition of building materials such as cob , for insulation, in the manufacture of paper and board such as oriented structural straw board . Grass fiber can be used for making paper , biofuel production, nonwoven fabrics, and as replacement for glass fibers used in reinforced plastics. Bamboo scaffolding
332-469: A brittle spike ; upon maturity, the spikelets separate, facilitating seed dispersal . Domesticated barley has nonshattering spikelets, making it much easier to harvest the mature ears. The nonshattering condition is caused by a mutation in one of two tightly linked genes known as Bt 1 and Bt 2 ; many cultivars possess both mutations. The nonshattering condition is recessive , so varieties of barley that exhibit this condition are homozygous for
415-589: A dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide. Maize is a grass, related to sorghum and more distantly to rice and wheat . The genus Zea is closely related to Tripsacum , gamagrass. various grasses e.g. fescue , ryegrass Hordeum (barley) Triticum (wheat) Oryza (rice) Pennisetum (fountaingrasses, pearl millet ) Sorghum (sorghum) Tripsacum (gamagrass) Zea mays (maize) other Zea species ( teosintes ) Teosintes are critical components of maize domestication , but opinions vary about which taxa were involved. According to
498-431: A large amount of scientific interest exists in conferring beneficial teosinte traits, such as nitrogen fixation, insect resistance, perennialism, and flood tolerance, to cultivated maize lines, although this is very difficult due to linked deleterious teosinte traits. Gene flow from genetically modified maize to teosinte weeds has only been observed to produce a GM teosinte with the same trait but this may not always be
581-431: A meal). Consuming breakfast cereals containing barley over weeks to months improves cholesterol levels and glucose regulation. Barley contains gluten , which makes it an unsuitable grain for consumption by people with gluten-related disorders , such as coeliac disease , non-coeliac gluten sensitivity and wheat allergy sufferers. Nevertheless, some wheat allergy patients can tolerate barley. Barley, made into malt ,
664-402: A mix), and there are important differences in enzyme content, kernel shape, and other factors that malters and brewers must take into consideration. In traditional taxonomy, different forms of barley were classified as different species based on morphological differences. Two-row barley with shattering spikes (wild barley) was named Hordeum spontaneum . Two-row barley with nonshattering spikes
747-639: A morphology rather like Z. m. parviglumis with many terminal chromosome knobs and an isozyme position between the two sections. Considered to be phenotypically the most distinctive, as well as the most threatened, teosinte is Zea nicaraguensis . This teosinte thrives in flooded conditions along 200 m of a coastal estuarine river in northwest Nicaragua. Teosintes strongly resemble maize in many ways, notably their tassel (male inflorescence) morphology. Teosintes are distinguished from maize most obviously by their numerous branches each bearing bunches of distinctive, small female inflorescences . These spikes mature to form
830-577: A photosynthetic pathway, linked to specialized Kranz leaf anatomy , which allows for increased water use efficiency , rendering them better adapted to hot, arid environments. The C3 grasses are referred to as "cool-season" grasses, while the C4 plants are considered "warm-season" grasses. Although the C4 species are all in the PACMAD clade (see diagram below), it seems that various forms of C4 have arisen some twenty or more times, in various subfamilies or genera. In
913-530: A simple inheritance-based tree. Bambusoideae (bamboos) ( fescue , ryegrass ) Hordeum (barley) Triticum (wheat) Secale (rye) Oryza (rice) other grasses Sorghum (sorghum) Zea (maize) Barley was one of the first grains to be domesticated in the Fertile Crescent , an area of relatively abundant water in Western Asia, around 9,000 BC. Wild barley ( H. vulgare ssp. spontaneum ) ranges from North Africa and Crete in
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#1732844662697996-510: A sleeping child in a boat without oars with a sheaf of corn at his head. Axel Olrik identified Peko , a parallel "barley-figure" in Finnish culture, in turn connected by R.D. Fulk with the Eddaic Bergelmir . In English folklore , the figure of John Barleycorn in the folksong of the same name is a personification of barley, and of the alcoholic beverages made from it: beer and whisky. In
1079-596: A smaller part of the vegetation in almost every other terrestrial habitat. Grass-dominated biomes are called grasslands. If only large, contiguous areas of grasslands are counted, these biomes cover 31% of the planet's land. Grasslands include pampas , steppes , and prairies . Grasses provide food to many grazing mammals, as well as to many species of butterflies and moths . Many types of animals eat grass as their main source of food, and are called graminivores – these include cattle , sheep , horses , rabbits and many invertebrates , such as grasshoppers and
1162-555: A total of 5000 Mbp. Details of the genome are freely available in several barley databases. The barley genus Hordeum is relatively closely related to wheat and rye within the Triticeae , and more distantly to rice within the BOP clade of grasses ( Poaceae ). The phylogeny of the Triticeae is complicated by hybridization between species, so there is a network of relationships rather than
1245-485: A two-ranked 'ear' of five to 10 triangular or trapezoidal, black or brown disarticulating segments, each with one seed. Each seed is enclosed by a very hard fruitcase, consisting of a cupule or depression in the rachis and a tough lower glume. This protects them from the digestive processes of ruminants that forage on teosinte and aid in seed distribution through their droppings. Teosinte seed exhibits some resistance to germination, but will quickly germinate if treated with
1328-904: A variety that include grasses that are related to modern rice and bamboo . Grasses have adapted to conditions in lush rain forests , dry deserts , cold mountains and even intertidal habitats , and are currently the most widespread plant type; grass is a valuable source of food and energy for all sorts of wildlife. A cladogram shows subfamilies and approximate species numbers in brackets: Chloridoideae (1600) Danthonioideae (300) Micrairoideae (200) Arundinoideae (50) Panicoideae (3250) Aristidoideae (350) Oryzoideae (110) Bambusoideae – bamboos (1450) Pooideae (3850) Puelioideae (11) Pharoideae (13) Anomochlooideae (4) Before 2005, fossil findings indicated that grasses evolved around 55 million years ago. Finds of grass-like phytoliths in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites from
1411-404: Is a cereal , a member of the grass family with edible grains. Its flowers are clusters of spikelets arranged in a distinctive herringbone pattern . Each spikelet has a long thin awn (to 160 mm (6.3 in) long), making the ears look tufted. The spikelets are in clusters of three. In six-row barley, all three spikelets in each cluster are fertile; in two-row barley, only the central one
1494-497: Is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family . The best-known species is Z. mays (variously called maize , corn, or Indian corn), one of the most important crops for human societies throughout much of the world. The four wild species are commonly known as teosintes and are native to Mesoamerica . Zea is derived from the Greek name ( ζειά ) for another cereal grain (possibly spelt ). The five accepted species names in
1577-399: Is a form of domesticated barley with an easier-to-remove hull . Naked barley is an ancient food crop, but a new industry has developed around uses of selected hulless barley to increase the digestibility of the grain, especially for pigs and poultry. Hulless barley has been investigated for several potential new applications as whole grain, bran, and flour. In 2022, world production of barley
1660-473: Is a grass used as a culinary herb for its citrus-like flavor and scent. Many species of grass are grown as pasture for foraging or as fodder for prescribed livestock feeds, particularly in the case of cattle , horses , and sheep . Such grasses may be cut and stored for later feeding, especially for the winter, in the form of bales of hay or straw , or in silos as silage . Straw (and sometimes hay) may also be used as bedding for animals. An example of
1743-511: Is a key ingredient in beer and whisky production. Two-row barley is traditionally used in German and English beers. Six-row barley was traditionally used in US beers , but both varieties are in common usage now. Distilled from green beer, Scottish and Irish whisky are made primarily from barley. About 25% of American barley is used for malting, for which barley is the best-suited grain. Accordingly, barley
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#17328446626971826-465: Is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses . It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos , the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and pasture . The latter are commonly referred to collectively as grass . With around 780 genera and around 12,000 species, the Poaceae is the fifth-largest plant family , following
1909-566: Is able to withstand typhoon-force winds that would break steel scaffolding. Larger bamboos and Arundo donax have stout culms that can be used in a manner similar to timber, Arundo is used to make reeds for woodwind instruments , and bamboo is used for innumerable implements. Phragmites australis (common reed) is important for thatching and wall construction of homes in Africa. Grasses are used in water treatment systems, in wetland conservation and land reclamation , and used to lessen
1992-617: Is at best mixed. Barley grains were once used for measurement in England, there being nominally three or four barleycorns to the inch. By the 19th century, this had been superseded by standard inch measures. In ancient Mesopotamia , barley was used as a form of money, the standard unit of weight for barley, and hence of value, being the shekel . In the Old English poem Beowulf , and in Norse mythology , Scyld Scefing (the second name meaning "with
2075-578: Is cultivated in Orkney , Shetland, Caithness and the Western Isles of the Scottish Highlands and Islands . When milled into beremeal , it is used locally in bread , biscuits , and the traditional beremeal bannock . In Japanese cuisine, barley is mixed with rice and steamed as mugimeshi . The naval surgeon Takaki Kanehiro introduced it into institutional cooking to combat beriberi , endemic in
2158-577: Is fertile. It is a self-pollinating , diploid species with 14 chromosomes . The genome of barley was sequenced in 2012 by the International Barley Genome Sequencing Consortium and the UK Barley Sequencing Consortium. The genome is organised into seven pairs of nuclear chromosomes (recommended designations: 1H, 2H, 3H, 4H, 5H, 6H and 7H), and one mitochondrial and one chloroplast chromosome , with
2241-918: Is for piecing together historical landscapes and weather patterns, considering other factors such as genetic material amount might also affect pollen size. Despite these challenges, new techniques in Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and improved statistical methods are now helping to better identify these similar-looking pollen types. Grasses are the primary plants used in lawns, which themselves derive from grazed grasslands in Europe. They also provide an important means of erosion control (e.g., along roadsides), especially on sloping land. Grass lawns are an important covering of playing surfaces in many sports, including football (soccer) , American football , tennis , golf , cricket , softball and baseball . Zea (plant) Zea
2324-639: Is grown around the world in temperate areas. It grows best in well-drained soil in full sunshine. In the tropics and subtropics, it is grown for food and straw in South Asia, North and East Africa, and in the Andes of South America. In dry regions it requires irrigation. It has a short growing season and is relatively drought-tolerant . Barley is more tolerant of soil salinity than other cereals, varying in different cultivars. It has less winter-hardiness than winter wheat and far less than rye. Like other cereals, barley
2407-623: Is known as سويق : sawīq in the Arab world . With a long history of cultivation in the Middle East , barley is used in a wide range of traditional Arabic , Assyrian , Israelite , Kurdish , and Persian foodstuffs including keşkek , kashk , and murri . Barley soup is traditionally eaten during Ramadan in Saudi Arabia. Cholent or hamin (in Hebrew) is a traditional Jewish stew often eaten on
2490-606: Is linked to crop improvement, since meiotic recombination is an important component of plant breeding . Unlike in animals, the specification of both male and female plant germlines occurs late in development during flowering. The transition from the sporophyte phase to the gametophyte state is initiated by meiotic entry. Grasses are, in human terms, perhaps the most economically important plant family. Their economic importance stems from several areas, including food production, industry, and lawns . They have been grown as food for domesticated animals for up to 6,000 years and
2573-569: Is often assessed by its malting enzyme content. Barley wine is a style of strong beer from the English brewing tradition. An 18th-century alcoholic drink of the same name was made by boiling barley in water, then mixing the barley water with white wine, borage , lemon and sugar. In the 19th century, a different barley wine was prepared from recipes of ancient Greek origin. Nonalcoholic drinks such as barley water and roasted barley tea have been made by boiling barley in water. In Italy, roasted barley
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2656-431: Is relatively tolerant of drought and soil salinity but is less winter-hardy than wheat or rye . In 2022, barley was fourth among grains in quantity produced, 155 million tonnes , behind maize , wheat, and rice . Globally, 70% of barley production is used as animal feed , while 30% is used as a source of fermentable material for beer , or further distilled into whisky , and as a component of various foods. It
2739-531: Is sometimes used as coffee substitute, caffè d'orzo (barley coffee). Some 70% of the world's barley production is used as livestock feed, for example for cattle feeding in western Canada. In 2014, an enzymatic process was devised to make a high-protein fish feed from barley, suitable for carnivorous fish such as trout and salmon . Barley straw has been placed in mesh bags and floated in fish ponds or water gardens to help prevent algal growth without harming pond plants and animals. The technique's effectiveness
2822-626: Is susceptible to several viral diseases, such as barley mild mosaic bymovirus . Some viruses, such as barley yellow dwarf virus , vectored by the rice root aphid , can cause serious crop injury. For durable disease resistance, quantitative resistance is more important than qualitative resistance . The most important foliar diseases have corresponding resistance gene regions on all chromosomes of barley. A large number of molecular markers are available for breeding of resistance to leaf rust, powdery mildew, Rhynchosporium secalis , Pyrenophora teres f. teres , Barley yellow dwarf virus , and
2905-425: Is typically planted on tilled land. Seed was traditionally scattered , but in developed countries is usually drilled . As it grows it requires soil nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium), often supplied as fertilizers. It needs to be monitored for pests and diseases, and if necessary treated before these become serious. The stems and ears turn yellow when ripe, and the ears begin to droop. Traditional harvesting
2988-509: Is typified by dark-staining knobs made up of heterochromatin that are terminal on most chromosome arms, while most subspecies of section Zea may have none to three knobs between each chromosome end and the centromere and very few terminal knobs (except Z. m. huehuetenangensis , which has many large terminal knobs). Both annual and perennial teosinte species occur. Z. diploperennis and Z. perennis are perennial, while all other species are annual. All species are diploid (n=10) with
3071-399: Is used in soups and stews and in barley bread of various cultures. Barley grains are commonly made into malt using a traditional and ancient method of preparation. In English folklore, John Barleycorn personifies the grain and the alcoholic beverages made from it. English pub names such as The Barley Mow allude to its role in the production of beer. The Old English word for barley
3154-449: The Aristida genus for example, one species ( A. longifolia ) is C3 but the approximately 300 other species are C4. As another example, the whole tribe of Andropogoneae , which includes maize , sorghum , sugar cane , " Job's tears ", and bluestem grasses , is C4. Around 46 percent of grass species are C4 plants. The name Poaceae was given by John Hendley Barnhart in 1895, based on
3237-476: The Barley yellow mosaic virus complex . Hulled barley (or covered barley) is eaten after removing the inedible, fibrous, outer husk or hull. Once removed, it is called dehulled barley (or pot barley or scotch barley). Pearl barley (or pearled barley) is dehulled to remove most of the bran, and polished. Barley meal, a wholemeal barley flour lighter than wheat meal but darker in colour, is used in gruel . This gruel
3320-698: The Albian stage of the Early Cretaceous approximately 113–100 million years ago, which were found to belong to primitive lineages within Poaceae, similar in position to the Anomochlooideae. These are currently the oldest known grass fossils. The relationships among the three subfamilies Bambusoideae, Oryzoideae and Pooideae in the BOP clade have been resolved: Bambusoideae and Pooideae are more closely related to each other than to Oryzoideae. This separation occurred within
3403-503: The Americas ). Sugarcane is the major source of sugar production. Additional food uses of sugarcane include sprouted grain , shoots , and rhizomes , and in drink they include sugarcane juice and plant milk , as well as rum , beer , whisky , and vodka . Bamboo shoots are used in numerous Asian dishes and broths, and are available in supermarkets in various sliced forms, in both fresh, fermented and canned versions. Lemongrass
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3486-550: The Asteraceae , Orchidaceae , Fabaceae and Rubiaceae . The Poaceae are the most economically important plant family, providing staple foods from domesticated cereal crops such as maize , wheat , rice , oats , barley , and millet for people and as feed for meat-producing animals . They provide, through direct human consumption, just over one-half (51%) of all dietary energy; rice provides 20%, wheat supplies 20%, maize (corn) 5.5%, and other grains 6%. Some members of
3569-453: The Cenozoic contributed to the spread of grasses. Without large grazers, fire-cleared areas are quickly colonized by grasses, and with enough rain, tree seedlings. Trees eventually outcompete most grasses. Trampling grazers kill seedling trees but not grasses. Sexual reproduction and meiosis have been studied in rice , maize , wheat and barley . Meiosis research in these crop species
3652-525: The European corn borer ( Ostrinia nubilalis ), among many others. Virtually all populations of teosintes are either threatened or endangered: Z. diploperennis exists in an area of only a few square miles; Z. nicaraguensis survives as about 6000 plants in an area of 200 × 150 m. The Mexican and Nicaraguan governments have taken action in recent years to protect wild teosinte populations, using both in situ and ex situ conservation methods. Currently,
3735-455: The Sabbath , in numerous recipes by both Mizrachi and Ashkenazi Jews ; its original form was a barley porridge. In Eastern and Central Europe, barley is used in soups and stews such as ričet . In Africa, where it is a traditional food plant, it has the potential to improve nutrition, boost food security, foster rural development, and support sustainable landcare. The six-row variety bere
3818-521: The genus are: Maize ( Zea mays ) is further divided into four subspecies: Z. m. huehuetenangensis , Z. m. mexicana , Z. m. parviglumis (Balsas teosinte, the ancestor of maize), and Z. m. mays . The first three subspecies are teosintes; the last is maize , or corn, the only domesticated taxon in the genus Zea . The genus is divided into two sections : Luxuriantes , with Z. diploperennis , Z. luxurians , Z. nicaraguensis , Z. perennis ; and Zea with Z. mays . The former section
3901-550: The larvae ( caterpillars ) of some Lepidopteran species including (in the Americas) the fall armyworm ( Spodoptera frugiperda ), the corn earworm ( Helicoverpa zea ), and the stem borers Diatraea and Chilo ; in the Old World, it is attacked by the double-striped pug , the cutworms heart and club and heart and dart , Hypercompe indecisa , the rustic shoulder-knot , the setaceous Hebrew character and turnip moths , and
3984-422: The ligule lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath. Flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets , each having one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes . The part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two (or sometimes fewer) bracts at
4067-598: The rachis . In wild barley (and other Old World species of Hordeum ), only the central spikelet is fertile, while the other two are reduced. This condition is retained in certain cultivars known as two-row barleys. A pair of mutations (one dominant, the other recessive) result in fertile lateral spikelets to produce six-row barleys. A mutation in one gene, vrs1 , is responsible for the transition from two-row to six-row barley. Brewers in Europe tend to use two-row cultivars and breweries in North America use six-row barley (or
4150-508: The B vitamin niacin (14% DV), and dietary minerals , including iron (10% DV) and manganese (12% DV) (table). According to Health Canada and the US Food and Drug Administration , consuming at least 3 grams per day of barley beta-glucan can lower levels of blood cholesterol , a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases . Eating whole-grain barley, a high-fibre grain, improves regulation of blood sugar (i.e., reduces blood glucose response to
4233-671: The Korean Peninsula since the Early Mumun Pottery Period ( circa 1500–850 BC). Barley ( Yava in Sanskrit ) is mentioned many times in the Rigveda and other Indian scriptures as a principal grain in ancient India. Traces of barley cultivation have been found in post-Neolithic Bronze Age Harappan civilization 5,700–3,300 years ago. Barley beer was probably one of the first alcoholic drinks developed by Neolithic humans; later it
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#17328446626974316-562: The Poaceae are used as building materials ( bamboo , thatch , and straw ); others can provide a source of biofuel , primarily via the conversion of maize to ethanol . Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath. The leaf grows from the base of the blade, an adaptation allowing it to cope with frequent grazing. Grasslands such as savannah and prairie where grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40.5% of
4399-565: The armed forces in the 19th century. It became standard prison fare, and remains a staple in the Japan Self-Defense Forces . Cooked barley is 69% water, 28% carbohydrates , 2% protein , and 0.4% fat (table). In a 100-gram (3.5 oz) reference serving, cooked barley provides 515 kilojoules (123 kcal) of food energy and is a good source (10% or more of the Daily Value , DV) of essential nutrients , including, dietary fibre ,
4482-497: The available early maize gene pool can be divided into three clusters: Also, some other intermediate genomes, or admixtures of these clusters occur. According to these authors, "The maize of the Andes Mountains with its distinctive hand grenade-shaped ears was derived from the maize of lowland South America, which in turn came from maize of the lowlands of Guatemala and southern Mexico." Zea species are used as food plants by
4565-577: The barley, honey". The antiquary Cuthbert Sharp records that Elsie Marley was "a handsome, buxom, bustling landlady, and brought good custom to the [ale] house by her civility and attention." English pub names such as The Barley Mow, John Barleycorn, Malt Shovel, and Mash Tun allude to barley's role in the production of beer. Poaceae Gramineae Juss. Poaceae ( / p oʊ ˈ eɪ s i . iː , - s i aɪ / poh- AY -see-e(y)e ), also called Gramineae ( / ɡ r ə ˈ m ɪ n i . iː , - n i aɪ / grə- MIN -ee-e(y)e ),
4648-442: The base, called glumes , followed by one or more florets. A floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the lemma —and one internal—the palea . The flowers are usually hermaphroditic — maize being an important exception—and mainly anemophilous or wind-pollinated, although insects occasionally play a role. The perianth is reduced to two scales, called lodicules , that expand and contract to spread
4731-450: The caterpillars of many brown butterflies . Grasses are also eaten by omnivorous or even occasionally by primarily carnivorous animals. Grasses dominate certain biomes , especially temperate grasslands , because many species are adapted to grazing and fire. Grasses are unusual in that the meristem is near the bottom of the plant; hence, grasses can quickly recover from cropping at the top. The evolution of large grazing animals in
4814-587: The domestication of barley, in the form of cultivars that cannot reproduce without human assistance, comes from Mesopotamia, specifically the Jarmo region of modern-day Iraq, around 9,000–7,000 BC. Domestication changed the morphology of the barley grain substantially, from an elongated shape to a more rounded spherical one. Wild barley has distinctive genes , alleles , and regulators with potential for resistance to abiotic or biotic stresses ; these may help cultivated barley to adapt to climatic changes. Wild barley has
4897-830: The erosional impact of urban storm water runoff. Pollen morphology, particularly in the Poaceae family, is key to figuring out their evolutionary relationships and how environments have changed over time . Grass pollen grains, however, often look the same, making it hard to use them for detailed climate or environmental reconstructions. Grass pollen has a single pore and can vary a lot in size, from about 20 to over 100 micrometers, and this size difference has been looked into for clues about past habitats, to tell apart domesticated grasses from wild ones, and to indicate various biological features like how they perform photosynthesis , their breeding systems, and genetic complexity. Yet, there's ongoing debate about how effective pollen size
4980-422: The exception of Z. perennis , which is tetraploid (n=20). The different species and subspecies of teosinte can be readily distinguished based on morphological, cytogenetic, protein, and DNA differences and on geographic origin. The two perennials are sympatric and very similar and some consider them to be one species. What many consider to be the most puzzling teosinte is Z. m. huehuetenangensis , which combines
5063-489: The fields, but the rate of gene exchange is quite low. Some populations of Z. m. mexicana display Vavilovian mimicry within cultivated maize fields, having evolved a maize-like form as a result of the farmers' selective weeding pressure. In some areas of Mexico , teosintes are regarded by maize farmers as a noxious weed , while in a few areas, farmers regard it as a beneficial companion plant , and encourage its introgression into their maize. According to Matsuoka et al.,
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#17328446626975146-463: The fifth century AD. This grain, along with a cool climate that permitted storage, produced a civilization that was able to raise great armies. It is made into a flour product called tsampa that is still a staple in Tibet. In medieval Europe, bread made from barley and rye was peasant food, while wheat products were consumed by the upper classes. Spikelets are arranged in triplets which alternate along
5229-469: The full list of Poaceae genera . The grass family is one of the most widely distributed and abundant groups of plants on Earth . Grasses are found on every continent, including Antarctica . The Antarctic hair grass, Deschampsia antarctica is one of only two plant species native to the western Antarctic Peninsula . Grasses are the dominant vegetation in many habitats, including grassland , salt-marsh , reedswamp and steppes . They also occur as
5312-478: The grains of grasses such as wheat , rice, maize (corn) and barley have been the most important human food crops . Grasses are also used in the manufacture of thatch , paper , fuel , clothing , insulation , timber for fencing , furniture , scaffolding and construction materials, floor matting , sports turf and baskets . Of all crops grown, 70% are grasses. Agricultural grasses grown for their edible seeds are called cereals or grains (although
5395-565: The initiates, prepared from barley and herbs, mentioned in the Homeric hymn to Demeter . The goddess's name may have meant "barley-mother", incorporating the ancient Cretan word δηαί (dēai), "barley". The practice was to dry the barley groats and roast them before preparing the porridge, according to Pliny the Elder 's Natural History . Tibetan barley has been a staple food in Tibetan cuisine since
5478-459: The land area of the Earth , excluding Greenland and Antarctica . Grasses are also an important part of the vegetation in many other habitats, including wetlands , forests and tundra . Though they are commonly called "grasses", groups such as the seagrasses , rushes and sedges fall outside this family. The rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the order Poales , but
5561-453: The latest Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian ) aged Lameta Formation of India have pushed this date back to 66 million years ago. In 2011, fossils from the same deposit were found to belong to the modern rice tribe Oryzeae , suggesting substantial diversification of major lineages by this time. In 2018, a study described grass microfossils extracted from the teeth of the hadrosauroid dinosaur Equijubus normani from northern China, dating to
5644-615: The latter term, when used agriculturally, refers to both cereals and similar seeds of other plant species, such as buckwheat and legumes ). Three cereals—rice, wheat, and maize (corn)—provide more than half of all calories consumed by humans. Cereals constitute the major source of carbohydrates for humans and perhaps the major source of protein; these include rice (in southern and eastern Asia ), maize (in Central and South America ), and wheat and barley (in Europe , northern Asia and
5727-463: The leaves are attached. Grass leaves are nearly always alternate and distichous (in one plane), and have parallel veins. Each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem and a blade with entire (i.e., smooth) margins. The leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with silica phytoliths , which discourage grazing animals; some, such as sword grass , are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called
5810-469: The lemma and palea; these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. The fruit of grasses is a caryopsis , in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall. A tiller is a leafy shoot other than the first shoot produced from the seed. Grass blades grow at the base of the blade and not from elongated stem tips. This low growth point evolved in response to grazing animals and allows grasses to be grazed or mown regularly without severe damage to
5893-502: The most widely held evolutionary model, the crop was derived directly from Z. m. parviglumis by selection of key mutations; but in some varieties up to 20% of its genetic material came from Z. m. mexicana through introgression . All but the Nicaraguan species of teosinte may grow in or very near corn fields, providing opportunities for introgression between teosinte and maize. First, and later-generation hybrids are often found in
5976-656: The mutant allele . Domestication in barley is followed by the change of key phenotypic traits at the genetic level. The wild barley found currently in the Fertile Crescent may not be the progenitor of the barley cultivated in Eritrea and Ethiopia , indicating that it may have been domesticated separately in eastern Africa. Archaeobotanical evidence shows that barley had spread throughout Eurasia by 2,000 BC. Genetic analysis demonstrates that cultivated barley followed several different routes over time. By 4200 BC domesticated barley had reached Eastern Finland. Barley has been grown in
6059-400: The plant. Three general classifications of growth habit present in grasses: bunch-type (also called caespitose), stoloniferous , and rhizomatous . The success of the grasses lies in part in their morphology and growth processes and in part in their physiological diversity. There are both C3 and C4 grasses, referring to the photosynthetic pathway for carbon fixation. The C4 grasses have
6142-622: The relatively short time span of about 4 million years. According to Lester Charles King , the spread of grasses in the Late Cenozoic would have changed patterns of hillslope evolution favouring slopes that are convex upslope and concave downslope and lacking a free face were common. King argued that this was the result of more slowly acting surface wash caused by carpets of grass which in turn would have resulted in relatively more soil creep . There are about 12,000 grass species in about 771 genera that are classified into 12 subfamilies. See
6225-412: The seagrasses are members of the order Alismatales . However, all of them belong to the monocot group of plants. Grasses may be annual or perennial herbs , generally with the following characteristics (the image gallery can be used for reference): The stems of grasses, called culms , are usually cylindrical (more rarely flattened, but not 3-angled) and are hollow, plugged at the nodes , where
6308-452: The song, John Barleycorn is represented as suffering attacks, death, and indignities that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping and malting; but he is revenged by getting the men drunk: "And little Sir John and the nut-brown bowl / Proved the strongest man at last." The folksong " Elsie Marley " celebrates an alewife of County Durham with lines such as "And do you ken Elsie Marley, honey? / The wife that sells
6391-459: The tribe Poeae described in 1814 by Robert Brown , and the type genus Poa described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus . The term is derived from the Ancient Greek πόα (póa, "fodder") . Grasses include some of the most versatile plant life-forms . They became widespread toward the end of the Cretaceous period, and fossilized dinosaur dung ( coprolites ) have been found containing phytoliths of
6474-569: The west to Tibet in the east. A study of genome-wide diversity markers found Tibet to be an additional center of domestication of cultivated barley. The earliest archaeological evidence of the consumption of wild barley , Hordeum spontaneum , comes from the Epipaleolithic at Ohalo II at the southern end of the Sea of Galilee , where grinding stones with traces of starch were found. The remains were dated to about 23,000 BC. The earliest evidence for
6557-406: Was bere . This survives in the north of Scotland as bere ; it is used for a strain of six-row barley grown there. Modern English barley derives from the Old English adjective bærlic , meaning "of barley". The word barn derives from Old English bere-aern meaning "barley-store". The name of the genus is from Latin hordeum , barley, likely related to Latin horrere , to bristle. Barley
6640-411: Was 155 million tonnes, led by Russia accounting for 15% of the world total (table). France, Germany, and Canada were secondary producers. Worldwide barley production was fourth among grains, following maize (1.2 billion tonnes), wheat (808 million tonnes), and rice (776 million tonnes). Barley is a crop that prefers relatively low temperatures, 15 to 20 °C (59 to 68 °F) in the growing season; it
6723-935: Was by hand with sickles or scythes ; in developed countries, harvesting is mechanised with combine harvesters . Among the insect pests of barley are aphids such as Russian wheat aphid , caterpillars such as of the armyworm moth , barley mealybug , and wireworm larvae of click beetle genera such as Aeolus . Aphid damage can often be tolerated, whereas armyworms can eat whole leaves. Wireworms kill seedlings, and require seed or preplanting treatment. Serious fungal diseases of barley include powdery mildew caused by Blumeria graminis , leaf scald caused by Rhynchosporium secalis , barley rust caused by Puccinia hordei , crown rust caused by Puccinia coronata , various diseases caused by Cochliobolus sativus , Fusarium ear blight , and stem rust ( Puccinia graminis ). Bacterial diseases of barley include bacterial blight caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. translucens . Barley
6806-427: Was named as H. distichon , six-row barley with nonshattering spikes as H. vulgare (or H. hexastichum ), and six-row with shattering spikes as H. agriocrithon . Because these differences were driven by single-gene mutations, coupled with cytological and molecular evidence, most recent classifications treat these forms as a single species, H. vulgare . Hulless or "naked" barley ( Hordeum vulgare var. nudum )
6889-625: Was used as currency. The Sumerian language had a word for barley, akiti . In ancient Mesopotamia , a stalk of barley was the primary symbol of the goddess Shala . Rations of barley for workers appear in Linear B tablets in Mycenaean contexts at Knossos and at Mycenaean Pylos . In mainland Greece, the ritual significance of barley possibly dates back to the earliest stages of the Eleusinian Mysteries . The preparatory kykeon or mixed drink of
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