? Common wheat or bread wheat
Ears of common wheat
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Poales Family: Poaceae Genus: Triticum Species: aestivum
Binomial name
Triticum aestivum L.

Common wheat (also known as bread wheat) is by far the most important wheat species in cultivation today. Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Divisions Green algae land plants (embryophytes) non-vascular embryophytes Hepatophyta - liverworts Anthocerophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses vascular plants (tracheophytes) seedless vascular plants Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongue ferns seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering... Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants (also called angiosperms) are a major group of land plants. ... Orders Base Monocots: Acorus Alismatales Asparagales Dioscoreales Liliales Pandanales Family Petrosaviaceae Commelinids: Arecales Commelinales Poales Zingiberales Family Dasypogonaceae Monocotyledons or monocots are a group of flowering plants usually ranked as a class and once called the Monocotyledoneae. ... Families (APG) Anarthriaceae Bromeliaceae Centrolepidaceae Cyperaceae Ecdeiocoleaceae Eriocaulaceae Flagellariaceae Hydatellaceae Joinvilleaceae Juncaceae Mayacaceae Poaceae Rapateaceae Restionaceae Sparganiaceae Thurniaceae Typhaceae Xyridaceae The Poales is a cosmopolitan order of monocotyledonous flowering plants. ... Subfamilies There are 7 subfamilies: Subfamily Arundinoideae Subfamily Bambusoideae Subfamily Centothecoideae Subfamily Chloridoideae Subfamily Panicoideae Subfamily Pooideae Subfamily Stipoideae The true grasses are monocotyledonous plants (Class Liliopsida) in the Family Poaceae, also known as Gramineae. ... Species T. monococcum T. spelta References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 Wheat (Triticum spp) is a grass that is cultivated around the world. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ... Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné â–¶(?), and in English usually under the Latinized name Carolus Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy. ...

Evolution

Bread wheat is a hexaploid free-threshing wheat closely related to spelt. As with spelt, genes contributed from goatgrass (Aegilops tauschii) give bread wheat greater cold hardiness than most wheats, and it is cultivated throughout the world's temperate regions. Species T. boeoticum T. durum T. monococcum T. spelta References:   ITIS 42236 2002-09-22 Wheat (Triticum spp. ... Binomial name Triticum aestivum spelta L. Spelt (Triticum aestivum spelta) is a subspecies of common wheat. ...

Recent history

Wheat first reached North America with Spanish missions in the 16th century, but North America's role as a major exporter of grain dates from the colonization of the prairies in the 1870s. As grain exports from Russia ceased in the First World War, grain production in Kansas doubled. Worldwide, bread wheat has proved well adapted to modern industrial baking, and has displaced many of the other wheat, barley, and rye species that were once commonly used for bread making, particularly in Europe.

Plant breeding

Modern wheat varieties have short stems, the result of RHt dwarfing genes that reduce the plant's sensitivity to gibberellic acid, a plant hormone that lengthens cells. RHt genes were introduced to modern wheat varieties in the 1960s from Norin 10 cultivars of wheat grown in Japan. Short stems are important because the application of high levels of chemical fertilizers would otherwise cause the stems to grow too high, resulting in lodging (collapse of the stems). Stem heights are also even, important for modern harvesting techniques. Wheat Norin 10 is a semi-dwarf variety of wheat, with very large ears, which grew in the experimental station of Norin, Japan. ...

Other forms of common wheat

Ears of compact wheat

Compact wheats (Triticum compactum, but in India T. sphaerococcum) are closely related to common wheat, but have a much more compact ear. Their shorter rachis segments lead to spikelets packed closer together. Compact wheats are often regarded as subspecies rather than species in their own right (thus T. aestivum subsp. compactum).

References

• Bonjean, Alain P. and William J. Angus (eds) (2001). The world wheat book : a history of wheat breeding, 1131, Andover : Intercept. 1898298726. Excellent resource for 20th century plant breeding.
• Caligari, P.D.S. and P.E. Brandham (eds) (2001). Wheat taxonomy : the legacy of John Percival, 190, London: Linnean Society, Linnean Special Issue 3.
• Heyne, E.G. (ed.) (1987). Wheat and wheat improvement, 765, Madison, Wis. : American Society of Agronomy. 0891180915.
• Zohary, Daniel and Maria Hopf (2000). Domestication of Old World plants: the origin and spread of cultivated plants in West Asia, 316, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 0198503563. Standard reference for evolution and early history.