Wheat (Triticum aestivum)

Triticum aestivum, commonly called common wheat or bread wheat, is a domesticated cereal grass and the most widely cultivated species of wheat, accounting for roughly ninety five percent of world wheat production. It arose about eight thousand years ago in the South Caucasus or southwestern Caspian region when an already domesticated wheat crossed with the wild goatgrass Aegilops tauschii, producing an allohexaploid plant carrying six sets of chromosomes, four from emmer wheat and two from the goatgrass parent. That hybrid origin gave the species enhanced cold hardiness, letting it spread from its origin across North Africa, Europe and East Asia and eventually into temperate regions worldwide. Its flour has proven especially suited to industrial baking, and it has largely displaced other wheats, barley and rye as Europe bread grain, making it both the most extensively grown crop on Earth and the highest earning cereal by value.