A History of Agriculture in India v1.c14.s2.3

v1.c14.s2.3

There are seven species of 14-chromosome wheats. They originated through hybridization and chromosome doubling of the 7-chromosome einkorn with a 7-chromosome wild grass which is still unidentified. The only wild species with 14 chromosomes is the wild emmer, *T. dicoccoides*, which is found in Armenia, northern Palestine, Syria, Turkey, and western Iran. The wheat found at Jarmo is of an irregular type with coarse and loose ears comparable with those of *T. dicoccoides*. From its original home, emmer diffused into Egypt, Ethiopia and Europe. It is still grown on a considerable scale in Ethiopia. Emmer was the wheat of Egypt until it was replaced by bread wheat after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in the fourth century B.C. Outside Ethiopia, emmer lingers on as a relict crop in Yugoslavia and southern India.