Wheat is a leading grain crop in many countries of the world. It belongs to the genus of grassy annual plants of the family cereals or bluegrass. Wheat is grown to produce flour, which subsequently makes bakery products, as well as pasta. Often this culture is used as feed or for the manufacture of vodka or beer.
Regarding the homeland of wheat, scientists, unfortunately, do not have a single opinion. Different regions can be considered centers of the spread of this culture on the planet. It is only known that people have 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, about 10-8 thousand BC. e.
Selection Features
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, were only unripe. Collecting the seeds of this plant that fell to the ground would be unnecessarily tiring.
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 culture at first, most likely, was aimed specifically at increasing the resistance of ears to shedding.
Grains of modern wheat are separated only by threshing. Because of this, the culture has almost completely lost its ability to reproduce naturally. There is wheat on our planet today mainly due to human efforts only.
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 the two types, and quite possibly representatives of more ancient civilizations.
Flour made from soft wheat varieties does not contain too much gluten and does not absorb much water. They use it mainly for the production of confectionery. Hard gluten flour contains a lot. Such a product in the food industry is used in baking bread.
Soft and hard varieties are distinguished by region of growth. 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 variety of culture is also mainly grown.
Durum wheat prefers a more continental and drier climate. Such varieties are cultivated, for example, in Canada, North Africa, the USA, Argentina.
Where the wild ancestor grew: hypotheses
Opinions of scientists about where the homeland of wheat is, differ. Some researchers believe that all modern species of this agricultural crop have one genetic ancestor. Other scientists believe that soft and hard wheat varieties came from different wild ancestors. In particular, the famous Russian geneticist N. I. Vavilov adhered to just such an opinion.
Homeland of Soft Wheat
This kind of culture, according to many scientists, came from a wild ancestor, who once grew up in nature in the Caucasus. However, some researchers believe that Armenia is the birthplace of wheat. Other historians believe that the wild ancestor of the soft variety of this culture once grew up in Georgia.
Origin of durum wheat
This species, according to most researchers, came from the countries of the Abyssinian center - Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia. It is the Ethiopian Highlands at the moment that many scientists 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 has been practically ideal for agriculture. Cultivated plants in the Ethiopian Highlands can be grown year-round.
Another hypothesis
Many scholars believe that wheat came from wild cereals 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 neighborhood of Diyarbakir is the most likely source of the spread of this culture.
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, unfortunately, no wild cereals similar to the ancestor of this plant were found.
Spread
With regard to the homeland of wheat, scientists have no consensus. But it is known for certain that this culture has already been grown:
in 9 thousand BC e. in the Aegean region;
in 6 thousand BC e. in India, Bulgaria, Hungary;
5 thousand BC e. on the British islands;
in 4 thousand BC e. in China.
By the beginning of our era, this plant was known almost throughout Africa and Asia. During the Roman conquest, wheat began to be cultivated in many European countries. In South America, this culture was introduced in the XVI-XVII centuries. In Canada and Australia, it appeared in the XVIII-XIX centuries.