Wheat
A staple cereal grass domesticated in the Fertile Crescent.
Wheat is a group of wild and domesticated grasses of the genus Triticum, cultivated as cereals for their grains, which are staple foods worldwide.
- field
- Agriculture, cereal crop
- known_for
- Staple food, leading source of vegetable protein, gluten source
Lore & Background
Domesticated strains developed traits such as larger grains and non-shattering heads, making them dependent on humans for dispersal. Einkorn and emmer are considered founder crops of Neolithic West Asian farming societies.
Reader's Guide
Wheat provides about 13% protein, making it the leading global source of vegetable protein, though its protein quality is relatively low. For a small portion of the population, gluten can trigger conditions such as coeliac disease and gluten sensitivity. The plant's morphology includes deep roots, awned or awnless varieties, and a flag leaf critical for grain yield. Climate resilience of wheat in Europe has declined, and awned varieties may become more widespread due to climate change.
Did You Know?
- World trade in wheat is greater than that of all other crops combined.
- Wheat has more stomata on the upper side of its leaf than on the underside.
- Gluten, which comprises most of the protein in wheat, can trigger coeliac disease in a small part of the population.
More in Ingredients 1-24
Elsewhere in the Ingredients universe
Spotted an error? Know more?
This is a living reference — every entry is fact-audited, and reader corrections feed straight into our audit queue. Suggest an edit · See this site's audit record