A History of Agriculture in India v1.c14.s2.6

v1.c14.s2.6

The wheat we grow today is none of these three early domesticates. All three are known as glume wheats because the spike, or the seed-bearing head, breaks up when it is threshed, leaving each seed enclosed in a hard, shell-like glume, or husk. The seeds must then be processed further, usually by pounding in a mortar, to free them of the husks. Some time after emmer was domesticated a mutation occurred that caused the base of the glume to collapse at maturity, freeing the seed. At the same time, the spike became tough, so that it did not fall apart as the ancestral spikes had done. The mutated, free-threshing emmer is the ancestor of our macaroni wheats.