Culms to 160 cm, decumbent at the base; nodes pubescent; internodes
mostly hollow, solid for 1 cm below the spike. Blades 5-15 mm wide, blue-green, hirsute, with long hairs over the
veins, shorter hairs between the veins, hairs stiff. Spikes 5-14 cm, wider than thick; rachises densely ciliate at the nodes and margins; internodes
3-5 mm; disarticulation spontaneous,
dispersal units wedge-shaped. Spikelets
12-17 mm, rectangular, with 2-3 florets, 1-2 seed-forming. Glumes 6-11 mm, coriaceous, tightly appressed to the lower florets,
2-keeled, with 2 prominent teeth; lemmas
10-14 mm, first (and sometimes the second) lemma awned, awns to 11 cm, third lemma
usually unawned; paleas splitting at
maturity; anthers 3-6 mm. Caryopses of the lowest floret in each
spikelet usually blue, that of the second amber or red with blue mottling; endosperm flinty. HaplomeAb. 2n = 14.
Triticum boeoticum is a wild diploid wheat that is native from the
Balkans through the Caucasus to Iran and Afghanistan,
and south to Iraq. It is morphologically similar to and, in its native range,
sometimes sympatric with T. urartu, another wild diploid wheat. Triticum monococcum-is the domesticated derivative of T. boeoticum.
Boissier published the
combination for this species both as -Triticum baeoticum- and -T. boeoticum-. Because the type specimen is from
Boeotia [Greece], -boeoticum-
is the correct spelling of the epithet.