Triticum
(the old Latin name for Wheat, probably derived from tritus, crushed or ground). Wheat; Wheat Grass. Including AEgilops, ORD. Gramineae. A genus comprising scarcely half a score species of hardy, annual or biennial, erect Grasses, natives of the Mediterranean region and Western Asia. Spikelets two to five-flowered, distichously spicate, sessile, slightly compressed; glumes rigid, the two lower ones empty; spikes terminal, cylindrical or elongated; rachis flexuous, alternately excavated, continuous or rarely articulated. Grain ovoid or oblong, often villous at apex. Leaves flat. The plants formerly included in British Floras under this genus--viz., T. caninum, T. junceum, and T. repens (Creeping Couch or Cooch Grass), the last-named being only too well known--are now referred to Agropyrum, the specific names being the same in both genera. To T. vulgare, may be referred nearly all the varieties of Wheat, a grain well known to every one.
T. aestivum (summer). A form of T. vulgare.
T. hybernum (winter). A form of T. vulgare.
T. vulgare (common). Wheat. fl. awned or muticous; spikelets usually four-flowered; valves ventricose, ovate, truncate, mucronate; spikes tetragonal, imbricated, the rachis tenacious. Grain free. h. 3ft. T. aestivum and T. hybernum are mere forms of this, and T. dicoccum, T. monococcum, and T. Spelta (Spelt) are very nearly allied.