Club Wheat

''Triticum compactum'' or club wheat is a species of wheat adapted to low-humidity growing conditions. ''T. compactum'' is similar enough to common wheat (''T. aestivum'') that it is often considered a subspecies, ''T. aestivum compactum''. It can be distinguished by its more compact ear due to shorter rachis segments, giving it its common name. In the United States of America, nearly all ''T. compactum'' is grown in dry areas of the Pacific Northwest.

''T. compactum'' is a hexaploid with 21 chromosomes. ''T. compactum'', like other club wheats, has been selectively bred for its lower protein content. Due to the process of selective breeding ''T. compactum'' has fewer HMW-glutenin genes than other species of wheat. Flour made from ''T. compactum'' is thus better suited for the production of cookies. ''T. compactum'' like other bread wheats have never been observed to grow in the wild.Harold J. E. Peake. March 1939. ''36. The First Cultivation of Wheat''. Man. Vol.39. p. 36.

History

Middle East and Europe

The oldest primitive forms of ''T. compactum'' appear to have first arisen, along with similar wheats, in neolithic Syria.Henry Field. April, 1932. ''Ancient Wheat and Barley from Kish, Mesopotamia''. American Anthropologist. Vol. 34, No. 2. From Syria ''T. compactum'' spread to Europe and was considered to be the oldest wheat species cultivated in Europe until the 1940s when older tetraploid varieties of wheat were identified.Ursula Maier. 1996. ''Morphological studies of free-threshing wheat ears from a Neolithic site in southwest Germany, and the history of the naked wheats''. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. Vol.5, No.1/2. ''T. compactum'' appears in Europe for the first time during the Neolithic Era reaching as far as Spain by 4600 BC. Evidence of ''T. compactum'' in Portugal and FranceJulian Wiethold. 1996. ''Late Celtic and early Roman plant remains from the oppidum of Bibracte, Mont Beuvray (Burgundy, France)''. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. Vol. 5, No. 1/2. demonstrates that the Romans cultivated ''T. compactum'' on the Iberian peninsula during the first and second centuries BCE. Evidence of ''T. compactum'' found along with barley in an east Finnish settlement reveals that ''T. compactum'' was cultivated in Finland starting between fifth and seventh centuries AD.

North America

''T. compactum'' was believed to have been introduced to North America from Chile by Pacific shipping routes during the 1960s and '70s. However analysis of adobe bricks in San Antonio, San Fernando, Soledad, San José, San Juan Bautista and Sonoma missions revealed that ''T. compactum'' was present in California by the year 1787 and was likely introduced by Spaniards through Mexico.''T. compactum'' was farmed extensively during the beginning of California's agricultural history. Data even suggests that ''T. compactum'' was farmed more than the related ''T. aestivum'' during this time. ''T. compactum erinaceum'', also called California Club Wheat, was a bearded, hairy rachis, red-chaffed subspecies of ''T. compactum'' that is thought to have disappeared before 1822.Davis, Horace. 1894. California Breadstuffs. (Chicago. The University of Chicago Press.) As production of American wheat drastically increased during the early twentieth century ''T. aestivum'' rose in popularity surpassing ''T. compactum''. Today most ''T. compactum'' is grown alongside ''T. aestivum'' because of their similar nature.

Morphology

''T. compactum'' is small free-threshing club wheat with rounded grains. In ''T. compactum'', like other bread and club wheats, there is a keel on the upper section of the otherwise flat glume. ''T. compactum'' characteristically has a smaller, crooked crease than other species of wheat and smaller cheek size at the brush end.

Identification

''T. compactum'' is identifiable from ''T. aestivum'' mainly by its shorter rachis segments and compact ear for which it is named. The now extinct subspecies of ''T. compactum'', ''T. compactum erinaceum'' or California club wheat, can be distinguished from other subspecies by its red chaff and hairier rachides. The below chart indicates the physiological factors that can be used to distinguish between various subspecies and varieties of ''T. compactum'':J. Allen Clark and B. B. Bayles. 1935. ''Classification of Wheat Varieties Grown in the United States''. United States Department of Agriculture.

Fossilized specimen

Most ancient ''T. compactum'' was cultivated between the Neolithic era and the Bronze Age and thus the most common evidence of ancient ''T. compactum'' is carbonized. Although carbonized wheat may often resemble its unfossilized counterpart and can often be identified with the same methods described above it is sometimes difficult to distinguish carbonized wheat this way due to a damaged or incomplete specimen. As a general rule, if a naked wheat, wheat with round grains and irregularly broken rachis forming internodes, is uncovered in a European site, excluding all sites on the Italian or Balkan peninsulas, it should be considered a hexaploid club wheat (either ''T. aestivum'' or ''T. compactum'' ). If such wheat has short internodes it should be identified as ''T. compactum''.

Agronomy

In the northern hemisphere ''Triticum compactum'' generally flowers during the months of June and July with its seeds ripening in August and September. ''Triticum compactum'' is an annual plant growing to heights of approximately 0.6 meters in the summer and dying in the winter.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2471887

Wheat