Rivet Wheat

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / parasite
Blumeria graminis parasitises live Triticum turgidum

Culms erect, 60–180 cm tall, 4- or 5-noded, smooth, glabrous. Leaf blade erect or nodding, green or greenish, broadly linear, pubescent or glabrous. Spike simple or branched at base, dense or relatively lax, pubescent or glabrous; rachis tough, margin very slightly ciliolate. Spikelets with 2–7 florets (perfect florets 3–5), sometimes densely pubescent at base. Glumes broadly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 10–30 mm, shorter to longer than lemma, herbaceous, submembranous, leathery, or papery, very prominently keeled, rough or prickly along keel, apex usually long awned, rarely awnless; keel crested, prolonged at apex into triangular, acute tooth. First lemma awn 12–19 cm or longer, stiff to relatively slender; more distal lemmas sometimes with apical point or awnless. Palea shorter than or equaling lemma. Caryopsis usually free from lemma and palea, plump or hard and vitreous. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug.

Rivet Wheat (2n=28). Reported from Sind and N.W.F.P., and probably also grown in Baluchistan. The inflorescence is often characteristically compound.

Frequently cultivated for food. Beijing, Gansu, Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [cultivated in E and N Africa, C and SW Asia, S Europe, the Mediterranean region, and South America (Argentina)].

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems with inflorescence 1-2 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blade auriculate, Leaf blades 1-2 cm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence simple spikes, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence spike linear or cylindric, several times longer than wide, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence spikelets arranged in a terminal bilateral spike, Inflorescence branches paired racemes, V-shaped, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet 3-10 mm wide, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets not disarticulating, or tardy, Rachilla or pedicel hairy, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Glumes 8-15 nerved, Lemma similar in texture to glumes, Lemma coriaceous, firmer or thicker in texture than the glumes, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma 8-15 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn 2-4 cm long or longer, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Palea keels winged, scabrous, or ciliate, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear, Caryopsis hairy at apex.