Family: Poaceae |
Mary E. Barkworth Plants annual, biennial, or short-lived perennials; cespitose when perennial. Culms 25–120(300) cm. Sheaths open; auricles 0.5–1 mm, usually present; ligules membranous, truncate, often lacerate; blades flat or involute. Inflorescences laterally compressed, distichous spikes, with 1 spikelet per node, the spikelets strongly ascending; middle internodes 2–4 mm; disarticulation below the florets and in the rachises, rachises of cultivated and feral plants not or only tardily disarticulatin. Spikelets 10–18 mm, with 2(3) florets; florets bisexual. Glumes 8–20 mm, shorter than the adjacent lemmas, linear to subulate, scabrous, coriaceous, 1-veined, keeled, keels terminating in an awn, awns to 35 mm; lemmas 8–19 mm, strongly laterally compressed, strongly keeled, keels conspicuously scabrous distally, scabrules 0.6–1.3 mm, apices tapering to a scabrous awn, awns 2–50 mm; anthers 3, 2.3–12 mm, yellow. x = 7. Haplome R. Secale is the classical Latin name for rye. Secale is a genus of three species. All are native to the Mediterranean region and western Asia; two species have been found in the Flora region. Secale cereale is cultivated as a crop and has sometimes been planted along roadsides to prevent soil erosion, a use that has resulted in the species becoming established in some parts of the United States. Secale strictum has been cultivated experimentally in the US; it is not established there. Unlike other cereal grasses such as Triticum, Hordeum, and Avena, species of Secale are outcrossing, but Secale sylvestre Host is reported to be self-compatible. All three species are diploids. Remains of cultivated rye dating to 6000 B.C. have been found in Turkey. ×Triticosecale is an artificially derived hybrid between Triticum and Secale that is now widely cultivated SELECTED REFERENCES Frederiksen, S. and G. Petersen. 1998. A taxonomic revision of Secale L. (Triticeae, Poaceae). Nordic J. Bot. 18:399–420; Hitchcock, A.S. 1951. Manual of the Grasses of the United States, ed. 2, rev. A. Chase. U.S.D.A. Miscellaneous Publication No. 200. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. 1051 pp. |