The Mediterranean Summer festival at Kew ran during the summer of
2007. Wheat
Triticum
Wild flowers in a French wheat field
Wheat is perhaps the most widely used of all Mediterranean plants, notably for flour to make bread. Its cultivation is huge business across the West. And that's not recent - it was one of the first crops to be cultivated by humans, well over 10,000 years ago. Its value is reflected in our common language with sayings such as 'separating the wheat from the chaff'.
It has often been said that the history of wheat is the history of civilisation. The wheat we know today began its evolution in the Fertile Crescent surrounding Mesopotamia some 12,000 years ago when lifestyles changed away from hunting and gathering. It was around that time that people began to cultivate wild wheats and select those with larger grains that were easy to harvest. They used it for making porridge and flat bread. It soon became a staple food and spread across the ancient world. It was not for everyone however - poor people had to make do with barley and millet as they couldn't afford wheat. The Roman civilisation was heavily dependant on wheat and fed its armies on imports from around its Empire.
Did you know?
- Today most of the wheat used in Britain to make bread comes from one species Triticum aestivum, while pasta is made from Triticum durum. 580 million tonnes of wheat are now produced annually, 15 million tonnes from the UK alone.
- Cereals make up a large part of our diet. The most important cereal crops are: wheat, barley, oats, maize (or corn), sorghum, millet and rice, all of which you can discover at Kew.
In the Grass Garden at Kew you can find a selection of wheat species, both historic and modern.