Aegilops

Goatgrasses
Aegilops geniculata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
(unranked):	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Genus:	Aegilops L.
Type species
Aegilops triuncialis L.[1][2]
Synonyms[2][3]
Triticum sect. Aegilops (L.) Godr. & Gren. Triticum subg. Aegilops (L.) C. Yen & J.L. Yang Triticum subg. Aegilops (L.) Schmalh. Perlaria Heist. ex Fabr. Amblyopyrum Eig Aegilemma Á.Löve Aegilonearum Á.Löve Aegilopodes Á.Löve Chennapyrum Á.Löve Comopyrum (Jaub. & Spach) Á.Löve Cylindropyrum (Jaub. & Spach) Á.Löve Gastropyrum (Jaub. & Spach) Á.Löve Kiharapyrum Á.Löve Orrhopygium Á.Löve Patropyrum Á.Löve Sitopsis (Jaub. & Spach) Á.Löve

Aegilops is a genus of Eurasian and North American plants in the grass family, Poaceae.^[4][5][6] They are known generally as goatgrasses.^[7] Some species are known as invasive weeds in pats of North America.^[8][9][10]

Description

These are annual plants, sometimes from rhizomes. The taller species reach about 80 centimeters in maximum height. The flat leaves are linear to narrowly lance-shaped, and are up to 15 centimeters long and one wide. The inflorescence is a spike with 2 to 12 solitary spikelets each up to 1.2 centimeters long. Some spikelets have one or three awns, and some have none.^{[8][11][12][13]}

Wheat

Genus Aegilops has played an important role in the taxonomy of wheat. The familiar common wheat (Triticum aestivum) arose when cultivated emmer wheat hybridized with Aegilops tauschii about 8,000 years ago.^[14][15] Aegilops and Triticum are genetically similar, as evidenced by their ability to hybridize, and by the presence of Aegilops in the evolutionary heritage of many Triticum taxa.^[12] Aegilops is sometimes treated within Triticum. They are maintained as separate genera by most authorities because of their ecological characteristics,^[12] and because when united they do not form a monophyletic group.^[15][16]

Ecology

Some Aegilops are known as weeds. A. cylindrica, which is commonly known as jointed goatgrass, infests wheat fields, where it outcompetes wheat plants, reducing yields. Its seeds mix with wheat grains at harvest, lowering the quality of the crop. It can also harbor pests such as the Russian wheat aphid (Diuraphis noxia) and pathogenic fungi. Other Aegilops are weeds of rangeland and wildland habitat.^[17]

Prehistoric use as a wild food source

During the Mesolithic era, nomadic peoples found goatgrasses (Aegilops) growing wild, along with wild wheats and barleys, and harvested them using bone sickles inset with sharp flakes of flint. The harvested plants were left to dry for a few days, then the edible grains were separated out from the rest of the plant material by beating the plants with a wooden flail, or by rolling them against a hard surface. The seeds were then carefully singed in the embers of a fire to burn away the remaining non-edible plant material. Some grains were accidentally burnt, and since the burnt grains do not biodegrade some have been found by modern archeologists. ^[18]

Etymology

The genus name Aegilops comes from the Greek aegilos, which could mean "a goat", "goatlike", "a herb liked by goats", or perhaps "a grass similar to that liked by goats".^[8]

Species

Aegilops tauschii

Accepted Species^{[7][19][8][11][12]}

1. Aegilops bicornis - Egypt, Libya, Cyprus, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Jordan, Israel Kuwait
2. Aegilops caudata - Balkans, Middle East
3. Aegilops columnaris - Middle East
4. Aegilops comosa - Greece, Turkey
5. Aegilops crassa – Persian goatgrass - Middle East to Central Asia
6. Aegilops cylindrica – jointed goatgrass - from Czech Republic to Pakistan
7. Aegilops geniculata - from Portugal + Canary Islands to Iran
8. Aegilops × insulae-cypri - Cyprus
9. Aegilops juvenalis - from Turkey to Kazakhstan
10. Aegilops kotschyi – ovate goatgrass - from Tunisia to Uzbekistan
11. Aegilops longissima - Middle East, Egypt
12. Aegilops lorentii - from Spain + Cape Verde to Iran
13. Aegilops mutica - Turkey, Transcaucasus
14. Aegilops neglecta – three-awned goatgrass - from Portugal + Canary Islands to Kazakhstan
15. Aegilops peregrina - from Morocco to Iran
16. Aegilops searsii - Syria, Jordan
17. Aegilops sharonensis - Israel
18. Aegilops speltoides - from Greece to Iran
19. Aegilops tauschii - from Crimea to Henan
20. Aegilops triuncialis – barbed goatgrass - from Portugal + Morocco to Kazakhstan
21. Aegilops umbellulata - from Crimea to Iran
22. Aegilops uniaristata - Italy, Balkans, Turkey, Caucasus
23. Aegilops vavilovii - from Caucasus to Saudi Arabia
24. Aegilops ventricosa - from Morocco + Balearic Islands to Caucasus

Formerly included species

Species once regarded as members of Aegilops but now considered better suited to other genera: Ctenium Dactyloctenium Elymus Eremochloa Ophiuros Parapholis Rottboellia Triticum

See also

• List of Poaceae genera

References