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Page 64 · DO #962 · 319_Love_Bx1FF7r
- Collection
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Áskell Löve (1916–1994) papers
- Item/Folder
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"Outlines for Books and Articles to be Published but Never Completed" (3 of 3)
- Digital Object
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DO #962,
page 64
- Collection-level dates
- 1950–1987
Page transcription
Wheats differ from most cultivated plants in the complexity of its variations. True, the other major cereals, rice and corn, are each differentiated into thousands of varieties, but these form a continuous spectrum of varieties and hence are classed as a single botanical species. Wheat is separated into distinct groups which differ from one another in many ways and are therefore classified as separate species under the single Old World genus Triticum. The domesticated wheats and their wild relatives have been studied more intensively than any other group of plants, cultivated or wild, and from these studies, truly international in scope, a picture is beginning to emerge of the evolution of wheat under domestication.
Authorities differ on the number of distinct species of wheat. Most scientists follow the classification of Nikolai Vavilov, the Russian geneticist and botanist who, with his colleagues, brought together for study more than 31,000 samples of wheat from all parts of the world. Vavilov recognized 14 species; other botanists have recognized fewer or more. All authorities agree, however, that the wheat species, whatever their number, fall into three distinct groups, determined by the number of chromosomes in their cells. The chromosome numbers (in the body cells) of the three types are, respectively,
