Wheat homeland: main hypotheses

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Wheat is the leading grain crop in many countries around the world. It belongs to the genus of herbaceous annual plants of the grass or bluegrass family. Wheat is grown to produce flour, from which bakery products are subsequently made, as well as pasta. Often this crop is also used as fodder or for making vodka or beer.

Regarding the birthplace of wheat, scientists have no consensus, unfortunately. Different regions can be considered the centers of distribution of this culture on the planet. It is only known that man has been growing wheat for a very long time. This plant people began to cultivate one of the first of the kind of cereals. According to most scientists, wheat was cultivated at the very beginning of the Neolithic revolution. That is, approximately in 10-8 thousand BC. e.

Features of selection

Where is the birthplace of wheat, scientists do not know for sure. However, it is known that a distinctive feature of wild-growing cereals is that when ripe, their seeds crumble very quickly. Ancient people, if they could eat grains of uncultivated wheat, thenonly immature. Collecting the seeds of this plant that have fallen to the ground would be an unnecessarily tedious task.

Of course, this feature of wheat at the very beginning of its cultivation caused serious inconvenience to farmers. It is believed that the selection of this crop at first, most likely, was aimed precisely at increasing the resistance of ears to shedding.

Grains of modern wheat are separated only when threshed. Because of this, the culture has almost completely lost the ability to reproduce naturally. There is wheat on our planet today mainly due to human efforts alone.

Main varieties

All currently existing wheat varieties are classified into two large groups: hard and soft. Historians believe that the ancient Romans and Greeks already knew the difference between these two types, and quite possibly representatives of more ancient civilizations.

Flour made from soft wheat varieties does not contain too much gluten and absorbs little water. It is mainly used for the production of confectionery. The flour from durum varieties of gluten contains a lot. Such a product is used in the food industry when baking bread.

Different soft and hard varieties and growing regions. The first type of wheat prefers a more humid climate. Soft varieties are grown in our time, for example, in Western Europe and Australia. In Russia, 95% of all cultivated wheat falls on soft varieties. In the countries of the former CIS,this type of crop is grown mainly.

Durum wheat prefers a more continental and dry climate. Such varieties are cultivated, for example, in Canada, North Africa, USA, Argentina.

Where the wild ancestor grew: hypotheses

Scientists differ about where wheat is native to. Some researchers believe that all modern species of this agricultural crop have one genetic ancestor. Other scientists believe that soft and durum wheat varieties originated from different wild progenitors. In particular, the well-known Russian geneticist N. I. Vavilov adhered to this opinion.

Homeland of soft wheat

This kind of culture, according to many scientists, came from a wild ancestor that once grew in nature in the Transcaucasus. At the same time, some researchers believe that Armenia is the birthplace of wheat. Other historians believe that the wild ancestor of the soft variety of this crop once grew in Georgia.

Origin of durum wheat

This species, according to most researchers, originated from the countries of the Abyssinian center - Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia. It is the Ethiopian Highlands that many scientists currently consider not only the birthplace of durum wheat, but also the world center of many other cultivated plants. Humidity in this region of the planet is not too high. However, since ancient times, it is almost ideal for agriculture. Cultivated plants in the Ethiopian highlands can be grown year-round.

Another hypothesis

Many scientistsIt is believed that wheat originated from a wild cereal that once grew in Turkey. According to some researchers, this country is the birthplace of wheat, both hard and soft. At the same time, according to scientists, the most likely center for the spread of this culture is the vicinity of the city of Diyarbakir.

Also, some researchers believe that in different parts of the planet the cultivation of wheat occurred almost simultaneously and independently of each other. However, in most regions of the world, no wild cereals similar to the ancestor of this plant, unfortunately, have been found.

Distribution

Scientists have no consensus on the homeland of wheat. But it is known for certain that this crop has already been grown:

• in 9 thousand BC. e. in the Aegean region;
• in 6 thousand BC. e. in India, Bulgaria, Hungary;
• in 5 thousand BC. e. in the British Isles;
• in 4 thousand BC. e. in China.

By the beginning of our era, this plant was known almost throughout Africa and Asia. In the era of the Roman conquests, wheat began to be cultivated in many European countries. This culture was brought to South America in the 16th-17th centuries. It appeared in Canada and Australia in the 18th-19th centuries.