Wheat

Wheat plants are a group of domesticated and wild grasses belonging to the genus Triticum in the family Poaceae. The cereal grains of the domesticated varieties yield wheat flour, the most widely used flour in baking. Maize, rice, and wheat are the three most important grain crops. Domesticated wheat originated in the Fertile Crescent at least 12,000 years ago.

Quotes

• Bread may be made out of wheat flour, water, yeast, and salt. Even when it contains no other ingredients than these, it has not always the same food value, pound for pound, for flours themselves differ in composition, and, moreover, some flours take up more water than others, the result being moister bread. Sometimes a little sugar or fat is added to the ingredients, and milk is often substituted for part of the water. These substances contribute somewhat to the nutritive valued of the bread, but they are used in such small amounts that they are much less important than the flour. The food value of a pound of bread is, therefore, not far different from that of the flour used in making it.
  • Caroline Louisa Hunt and Hannah L. Wessling, Bread and bread making in the home. No. 807. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1917. p. 3. 

• TILLERING
  The wheat plant has the ability to tiller, i.e. to produce lateral branches. At the end of the vegetative phase of development, the plant will consist of, in addition to the main shoot, a number of tillers. Exactly how many are present at this stage varies widely depending on factors such as plant population, sowing date, mineral nutrition and the application of plant growth regulators. Of the tillers present at this time, only a proportion will survive, the rest dying without producing an ear, possibly due to competition for resources, such as light or nutrients.
  • E. J. M. "Michael" Kirby, "Botany of the wheat plant". Bread Wheat. Improvement and Production. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation. 2002. pp. 19–37. 

• Historic documents confirm that wheat is the earliest field crop used for human food processing ... It also became the leading grain used for human consumption due to its nutritive profile and relatively easy harvesting, storing, transportation, and processing, as compared to other grains. The earliest varieties, grown 12,000–17,000 years ago in the Near East, were Tritium monococcum (einkorn) and Triticum dicoccum (emmer). Continued breeding resulted in the development of new varieties around the world that often became adapted to areas previously unsuited for the cultivation of wheat. The main wheat varieties grown today are Triticum aestivum, subspecies vulgare, which is a hexaploid with six groups of seven chromosomes in each group. This species includes hard red winter, hard red spring, soft red winter, and white wheats. Another wheat durum is a tetraploid, containing four groups of seven chromosomes totaling 28 chromosomes. The botanical name of durum wheat is Triticum durum. A limited area is planted with the soft white wheat variety of Triticum aestivum, subspecies compactum, commonly known as club wheat. Currently about 4000 different wheat varieties are grown around the world.
  • Elieser S. Posner, "Chapter 1. Wheat". Handbook of Cereal Science and Technology (2nd, revised & expanded ed.). pp. 1–29. ISBN 9780429116605.  (quote from p. 1; edited by Karel Kulp; 1st edition 1991)

• Wheat is the dominant crop in temperate countries being used for human food and livestock feed. Its success depends partly on its adaptability and high yield potential but also on the gluten protein fraction which confers the viscoelastic properties that allow dough to be processed into bread, pasta, noodles, and other food products. Wheat also contributes essential amino acids, minerals, and vitamins, and beneficial phytochemicals and dietary fibre components to the human diet, and these are particularly enriched in whole-grain products. However, wheat products are also known or suggested to be responsible for a number of adverse reactions in humans, including intolerances (notably coeliac disease) and allergies (respiratory and food). Current and future concerns include sustaining wheat production and quality with reduced inputs of agrochemicals and developing lines with enhanced quality for specific end-uses, notably for biofuels and human nutrition.
  • Peter R. Shewry (2009). "Wheat". Journal of Experimental Botany 60 (6): 1537–1553.

The Holy Bible: King James Version

• 11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.
  • "Joel, Chapter 1, Verse 11". The Holy Bible. 

• 36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
  37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
  38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
  • "Corinthians, Chapter 15, Verses 36–38". The Holy Bible. 

External links

• Media related to Wheat on Wikimedia Commons
• The dictionary definition of wheat on Wiktionary
• "Wheat" . Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). 1911.