Culms to 120 cm; nodes
pilose; internodes mostly hollow,
solid for 1 cm below the spikes. Blades
6-7 mm wide, pubescent. Spikes 4-9
cm, strongly flattened, wider than thick; rachises
glabrous or sparsely ciliate at the nodes and margins, not enlarged at the base
of the glumes; internodes 1.4-2.5 mm, not disarticulating or
disarticulating only with pressure, dispersal units wedge-shaped. Spikelets 10-12 mm, elliptical to
ovate, with 2-3 florets, usually only 1 seed-forming. Glumes 6-8(13) mm, usually coriaceous and tightly appressed to the lower
florets, sometimes chartaceous and only loosely appressed to the florets, 2-keeled,
2-toothed; lemmas 8-11 mm, lower 2 lemmas
awned, awns 3-8 cm; paleas splitting
at maturity. Caryopses amber; endosperm flinty. HaplomeAb. 2n = 14.
Triticum monococcum is the domesticated derivative of T. boeoticum. Its primary range extends
from the Balkans and Romania through the Crimea and Caucasus to northern Iraq
and western Iran, and south to northern Africa. It was originally introduced to
the Flora region as a food crop, but
is now used primarily for plant breeding. It is still grown as a crop plant in
some parts of the Balkans and in Romania.
Plants that originated
from a spontaneous mutation and have tough rachises and chartaceous glumes that
loosely enclose, but do not conceal, the florets have been named Triticum sinskajae A.A. Filatenko &
U.K. Kurkiev.