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Triticum monococcum
Also called Einkorn Wheat
Einkorn is a small, hulled annual wheat, one of the earliest cereals cultivated, grown from seed as a grain crop. It is grown as a field crop rather than as a garden or houseplant, and is typically under 70 cm tall.
Einkorn (from German Einkorn, literally "single grain") can refer to either a wild species of wheat (Triticum) or a domesticated form of wheat. The wild form is T. boeoticum (syn. T. m. subsp. boeoticum), and the domesticated form is T. monococcum (syn. T. m. subsp. monococcum). Einkorn is a diploid species (2n = 14 chromosomes) of hulled wheat, with tough glumes (husks) that tightly enclose the grains. The cultivated form is similar to the wild, except that the ear stays intact when ripe and the seeds are larger. The domestic form is known as petit épeautre in French, Einkorn in German, "einkorn" or "littlespelt" in English, piccolo farro in Italian and escanda menor in Spanish. The name refers to the fact that each spikelet contains only one grain. Einkorn was one of the first forms of wheat to be cultivated.
Einkorn wheat commonly grows wild in the hill country in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent and Anatolia, although it has a wider distribution reaching into the Balkans and south to Jordan near the Dead Sea.
Einkorn is a common food in northern Provence, France. It is used for bulgur or as animal feed in mountainous areas of countries including France, India, Italy, Morocco, the former Yugoslavia, and Turkey. It contains gluten (so is not suitable for people with gluten-related disorders) and has a higher percentage of protein than modern red wheats. It is considered more nutritious because it has higher levels of fat, phosphorus, potassium, pyridoxine, and beta-carotene.
Common wheat · Emmer · Durum wheat · Polish Wheat · Spelt · Timopheev's wheat · Rivet wheat
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Einkorn by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
