The spike is one of the varieties of inflorescences of angiosperms and consists of an elongated main axis with flowers located on it. The type of spike depends on the number of flowers. TO simple type an ear with the presence of single flowers is classified, and a complex one is represented by several flowers. The ear of wheat, one of the most important food crops, belongs to the second type.
Wheat (lat. triticum) is one of the most prominent representatives of the cereal family, belongs to the class of monocots and is the first cereal cultivated by humans. The place of origin of the culture was disputed for a long time, but as a result of careful research, the city of Diyarbakir, located in Asia Minor, was recognized as it.
The stem of the plant has a hollow, straight structure with the presence of nodes. Its growth is carried out due to the increase in internodes, the number of which varies from 5 to 7. After the stem outgrows the sheath of the last leaf, the heading process begins. From each fibrous root, up to 12 such stems can grow, each reaching a height of one and a half meters. The wheat leaf is flat, with pronounced fibrousness and rough to the touch.
The leaf width varies from 1.5 to 2 cm and depends on the wheat variety and growing conditions. The presence of hairs on the leaf blades also depends on the variety. The spikes are up to 15 cm long and are composed of several flowers, which, in turn, consist of two spikelet scales, two films, a pistil, three stamens and a stigma. The fruit of wheat is the grain. Pollination of flowers occurs naturally with the help of wind.
Wheat is propagated using seeds that can germinate with four roots at once. After the first leaves appear, a secondary root system is formed, capable of penetrating into the soil to a depth of 1 meter. Side shoots are formed from nodal roots, and their number can reach up to 5 pieces.
Wheat is used to produce flour used to make bakery and pasta products. Produced from grains ethanol, and bran is used to make drugs that help lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels in humans. The culture is also a raw material for the production of animal feed, immunomodulatory drugs and rejuvenating extracts.
Each of the wheat varieties is distinguished by the peculiarities of its spike structure, which general view looks like this: at the mouths of the crankshaft on both sides there are spikelets, in which there are flowers under the spikelet scales. The segments are arranged in a spiral shape, which ensures the formation of a platform in the upper section. Each platform is filled with spikelets, the arrangement of which is alternate: the first one looks to the left, the next one looks to the right, and so on. Thanks to this structure, 2 rows are formed on the sides, and on the front part one spikelet rests on the other. The color of the ears is white, red, black and smoky gray.
The glume is considered one of the important components of the ear: it is by its structure that wheat is classified into varieties. The scales are represented by two wide plates, separated in the middle by a keel. In order to determine what type of wheat, the scales of the middle part of the ear should be evaluated, since they do not change under the influence of external factors.
According to their shape, wheat ears are divided into several types:
The wheat fruit is presented in the form of a single-seeded grain with a high content of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, starch, disaccharides and dietary fiber. In addition, grains are rich in a large amount of minerals, vitamins, pectin, phytoestrogens and linoleic acid.
The grain size depends on the growing conditions and varies from 5 to 7 or more mm. The shape of the seeds is also varied. There are grains of oval-elongated, ovoid, oval and barrel-shaped with square, rectangular, round and oval cross sections. The number of grains in a spikelet also depends on external factors and ranges from 20 to 50 pieces.
Wheat is classified according to a number of characteristics, including the color of the ear and grains, the presence or absence of awns and pubescence. Spine species are represented by coarse, thin and intermediate types of awns, the properties of which directly depend on the amount of moisture. Thus, in the most humid areas the awns are tender and soft, while in drier areas they are rough and brittle. In relation to the spikelet, the awns can run parallel or extend to the sides at different angles. The color of the awns also depends on the amount of moisture, and can be gray-red with normal moisture, and black with a lack of water.
Wheat is also divided into winter and spring varieties.
Wheat and rye are the most famous cultivated grains and have provided humankind with food for many years. However, despite their prevalence, many city residents cannot distinguish between these two cultures.
Rye (lat. Secale) is a representative of the cereal family, and there are 12 wild and one cultivated species. The plant is characterized by an erect, hollow stem with a knotty structure, the height of which can reach two meters, and bluish, sometimes fleecy leaves, reaching 30 cm in length. The ears have a two-row structure and grow up to 15 cm; the flowers contain 3 stamens. Root system rye is very powerful, going two meters deep, which makes it possible to grow the crop on sandy soils. In my own way chemical composition Rye grains are very rich in gluten, carbohydrates, B vitamins and microelements. Flour is widely used to make baked goods, and young shoots of plants are excellent food for animals.
Although wheat and rye have so much in common, there are also differences between them.
Therefore, the nutritional value of wheat exceeds that of rye, which is rightfully a dietary food product.
For information on the properties of winter wheat, see the following video.
Konovalova Olga
I would like to present to your attention my work on making ears of grain for matinees, evening entertainment. We used them at the autumn matinee "Bread Land", a dance with ears of corn. To make one you will need a spikelet: shelf for balloons, yellow corrugated paper, santipon, pencil glue (13 grains: 1 on top and three on each row; there should be 4 rows).
cut a thin strip of corrugated paper, coat it with glue and wrap it diagonally around the stick. Make preparations of “grains” in advance for spikelet. Cut into rectangles (6x12, roll into balls from santipon and wrap like candy. Twist one side - this will serve as a spine.
Can be collected spikelet. We screw one “grain” onto the very top, having previously smeared the lower part with glue.
Then we glue 3 “grains” in each row.
The side of the “grain” that is closer to the stick is also glued with glue and pressed. This is so that the “grain” does not stick out to the sides later (doesn't look nice).
Quite a lot of cereal crops are currently known.
Here's what some of them look like:
rye (genus Rye, Secale )
wheat (genus Wheat, Triticum
)
oats (genus Oats, Avena
)
All these plants belong to the class ABOUTmonocots, Liliopsida
, family Cereals, Gramineae
(Poagrass, Poaceae
).
The Young Naturalist's Calendar for 1956 shows images of cereal crops: 
types of wheat:
1 - soft, 2 - dwarf, 3 - Spelled, 4 - Polish, 5 - einkorn, 6 - einkorn;
7 - rye;
8 - oats;
9 - millet
Benefits of rye
The most attractive for growing on your own plot of land is winter rye. Rye is annual plant, which can reach a height of 60 - 200 cm. The inflorescence of rye is a two-row spike. Cultivated rye has 39 (!) varieties, but we grow common rye (lat. Secále cerále ).
Only cornflowers can act as neighbors to rye.
Planting rye
It is recommended to sow winter rye in your garden or vegetable garden. in the third ten days of August or the first ten days of September. You can't sow later, since in this case the rye will not have time to gain strength before winter and will go under the snow weakened. If freshly harvested seeds are used for sowing, they must be heated in the sun for 3-4 days.
Here's what they say about planting rye in encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron:
And here's what it says in Yuzhakov's Great Encyclopedia:
And here is what is said about the cultivation of cereals in our area in the Military Statistical Review Russian Empire from 1848: 
The area intended for sowing must be dug up.
Before sowing for cultivation (loosening with a rake), you can apply 120 g/m² of mineral fertilizers: azofoska, nitrophoska or ecophosphoska.
Nitrophoska - classic mineral fertilizer, which is based on three elements vital for the full growth and development of any plant - nitrogen ( N), phosphorus ( R) and potassium ( TO).
Nitroammofoska is a complex, solid, complex, granular nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizer. There are two types of nitrogen in nitroammophoska - nitrate and ammonium, which significantly increases the lifespan of this mineral fertilizing. Azofoska is a nitroammophoska with the addition of sulfur.
Ecofoska is a highly effective granular water-soluble complex chlorine-free nitrogen-potassium fertilizer for use for all cultivated crops.
Then the soil needs to be leveled and furrows drawn through 15 - 20 cm, in which the seeds should be sown, spreading them out every 3 - 5 cm.
But in order to simplify the sowing process, seeds can be sown scattered (“like in the old days”), planting them to a depth of 2 - 5 cm. In dry weather, the planting depth can be increased by 1 - 2 cm.
Then the soil surface must be harrowed with a rake and slightly compacted, for example, rolled with a special roller made of a wooden block so that the seeds are pressed into the ground ( rolling promotes better wintering).
The optimal temperature for germination is 6 - 12 °C. Rye sprouts will have four roots, and wheat sprouts will have three. When the first leaves appear on rye they will be reddish, and sometimes bluish or bluish, and on wheat they will be green.
Rye is very undemanding to growing conditions; it is the most frost-resistant crop among cereal grains (even in snowless winters it tolerates frosts of - 20 ° C; with a snow cover of 20 - 25 cm, winter rye tolerates temperatures down to - 35 ° C), it is also grown in northern areas.
When growing rye hydroponically big problem is the fact that cereal seeds are very often affected by mold and this mold affects the plant being grown. When grown in the ground, mold does not have time to grow enough to harm the plant.
Phenological phases of rye
1. regrowth
In the spring, after the snow melts and the soil warms up a little at a temperature of 3 - 5 ° C, rye resumes its growth. Winter rye begins to grow quickly, overtaking and drowning out the weeds.
2. tillering
The next phase of rye development after spring regrowth is tillering - this is the appearance of new shoots due to underground branching of the stem.
3. tube output
The rye usually comes into the tube on the 17th - 18th day after the start of the spring growing season.
4. heading
Earing of winter rye begins 14 - 15 days after emergence. Unripe rye is colored bluish, and wheat is green.
5. flowering
Flowering begins 12-13 days after the start of heading and lasts an average of 10-12 days.
Winter rye is a cross-pollinating plant. Pollination occurs with the help of wind when the flowers are open. Good pollination of rye is observed on warm sunny days with light wind. Drought, strong winds and rains often lead to incomplete pollination.
6. ripeness
The stage of firm ripeness is noted two months after the start of heading.
Phenological phases of wheat
(from the above-mentioned “Young Naturalist’s Calendar”) 
The structure of rye
Stalk of rye ( straw) is divided into separate internodes and separating them nodes, to which are attached leaves.
Rye shoot elements:
sheet:
1- leaf sheath (enveloping the stem, contributes to its strength)
2 - leaf blade (petal)
3 - node (rests on the leaf sheath)
4 - internode (the thickness of the internodes decreases from bottom to top, and their length increases).
Season 2015-2016 (Season I)
I prepared rye seeds for planting: 
I planted these seeds September 5 on a small plantation in rows several centimeters deep, spaced fifteen to twenty centimeters apart: 
After planting, I compacted the soil with logs: 
On September 13, the sprouts reached a height of about 4 centimeters: 
Also September 13 I planted another rye plantation, bigger size than the first one: 
As in the first plantation, I also compacted the ground with logs after planting.
By September 15, the rye sprouts on the first plantation had grown further: 
and reached a height of about 8 centimeters: 
By September 18, small rye sprouts appeared on the second plantation: 
The rye sprouts of the first plantation reached a height of about 12 centimeters.
By September 20, the rye sprouts on the second plantation reached a height of 4 centimeters.
I also planted various plants on the third plantation - seeds of wheat, oats and rye. Inessa and I did a little weeding on the first plantation.
On September 24, rye sprouts on the first plantation reached a height of 16 cm: 
By September 27, wheat sprouts sprouted on the third plantation: 
and oat sprouts: 
Rye sprouts on the second plantation reached a height of 13 cm: 
In the first ten days of October, unusually cold weather set in - night temperatures reached -5 ... -7 °C. By October 12, rye sprouts on the first plantation reached a height of 25 cm, on the second - 22 cm, and on the third - 12 cm. Wheat and oat sprouts on the third plantation reached a height of 10 cm.
On October 16, rye on the first plantation (as well as on the others) is doing well: 
Rye in frost (October 31): 
On November 24th the first snow began!
My rye plantation in the snow: 
January 3, temperature - 25 ° C, rye under snow (snow depth about 6 cm): 
In mid-January, after the passage of Cyclone Emma, the depth of the snow cover was about 13 cm: 
At the beginning of February, the weather was unusually warm for this time, and almost all the snow melted. This is what overwintered plantations look like: 
Rye (1) overwintered well, wheat (2) also did well, but oats (3) almost did not survive.
Wheat ears
Anna Petrovna came to live in Altai during perestroika and moved closer to her children. She always remembered with warmth her homeland - Kazakhstan, where she spent her childhood and youth in the endless Kazakh steppe, where she devoted more than forty years of teaching work to the education of the younger generation. high school Terenyuzyak village. She was born in the village of Tikhonovka, Totsk district, Orenburg region, on September 2, 1930. In 1938, the family moved to Kazakhstan, to the city of Kzyl-Orda. My father got a job as a laborer on the railway, then, after completing a course for railway workers, he was sent to crossing point No. 3. For conscientious, hard work, my father was soon appointed duty officer at the crossing point.
There were no schools when traveling; the children of railway workers studied at school in the city of Kzyl-Orda. For a nominal fee at that time, the children lived in a boarding school, in which there were three groups: boys and two groups of girls: from first to fourth grade and from fifth to seventh grade. There was also a dining room, a kitchen, an isolation ward for the sick, and in the same building there was an apartment for the director of the boarding school.
From the memoirs of Anna Petrovna: “We were given 500 g of bread a day: in the morning - three pieces of bread, at lunch - four pieces and for dinner, as in the morning - three. There was other food besides bread, but for some reason I always remember the song we sang: “Boarding school, boarding school, good food. Tea in the morning, tea at lunch, tea in the evening.”
The war found our family on the move, I had already entered the 5th grade and was on vacation. Evacuation to the front began, the men were sent to assembly points in Kzyl-Orda. They didn’t take my father; as a railway worker, he was already considered military service, he had a “reservation”. I was the eldest in the family and also had a younger sister and brother. At our crossing No. 3, only Kazakhs lived; our family was an exception, Russian. But I don’t remember that there were conflicts between families, we lived very amicably, well and in Hard time neighbors helped each other.
Already in the summer of 1941, many evacuees from the western territories occupied by the enemy arrived at our junction and in the city of Kzyl-Orda. He managed all affairs at the crossing: he resolved all issues, received evacuees, assigned them to apartments, and arranged jobs for the chairman. They called him “molda” - a big boss, everyone obeyed him. In those years, there were a lot of lakes near our junction, and on the approach to the lakes there were impenetrable thickets of reeds. Reeds were harvested almost on an industrial scale. Shields were made from the harvested reeds, mats, large baskets and much more were woven. Molda hired workers from among the evacuated population. They paid for such work in products; there were always plenty of people willing to work at such a facility. Often the entire male population of the patrol was put on alert; this was when they were looking for deserters; they could be hiding in the impenetrable thickets of reeds. The men were forced to comb the thickets with a chain, looking for deserters.
They lived hungry, there wasn’t enough food, and now it’s hard to remember how and where their parents got food. We, the children, were collecting ears of wheat that had fallen down or had been broken off from the stalk, but God forbid that we should catch the eye of the overseer of the fields. The whip comes out in such a way that you will remember it for a long time. And they were glad that they didn’t report where they should be - otherwise prison would be inevitable for the parents. And if you manage to collect the ears of corn, you will bring them home secretly, so that no one sees, in the dark. They peeled the ears with their hands, freed them from the chaff, blew them in the wind, then mom took the sod from the neighbors (these are millstones), sat down with mom opposite each other, turned the circle, poured the grains into the center of the circle - the grains were ground into flour. You sit for several hours at this task, your back hurts, and your mother only bakes two flatbreads and the flour is all gone.
My father sometimes managed to get out hunting. He will walk many kilometers across the steppe in winter, when he comes with an empty bag, when he brings a hare, he goes fishing. Mom smoked fish in a Russian stove, and then we ran to passing trains and sold the fish to passengers. My mother was a craftswoman and needlewoman - she sewed, embroidered, and knitted to order. She also knew the Kazakh language very well, explained herself easily and could persuade anyone to buy at least something from her. She walked around nearby roads, exchanging skillfully woven lace for food. My parents later bought bread with the money they earned and spent it on clothes for us. I also remember that every family was required to knit woolen socks for the soldiers of the Red Army; I don’t remember how many pairs. My sister and I pulled wool, my mother spun yarn, and then my mother and I knitted socks together. Once a week people came from the city and took finished goods.
The railway workers were given food cards, a shop came, and with the cards you could buy soap, sugar, flour and something else, I don’t remember. There was plenty of salt, the Aral Sea was 5 hours away, where salt was harvested. And here drinking water was spent carefully, it was brought by railway 2 times a month in huge vats. A large well was made near the road. The platform with the vat was driven to the well and filled with water through the chute using a hose, and only then the residents of our station were allowed to disassemble the water. Most likely, there were also coupons for water, I don’t remember that people got as much water as they wanted, there was always not enough water, like bread.
When school began in September, we went to a boarding school in Kyzyl-Orda; we were rarely able to come home during school, only during the holidays, and we had to pay for a train ticket. Sometimes you had the good fortune to meet an acquaintance who was an auditor on the train checking tickets; you ask him, if he’s kind, he’ll take him, but if he doesn’t, he won’t. You go back to the boarding school in tears. Not all trains stopped at the siding, they just slowed down, and sometimes we had to jump out of the train while it was moving. I was desperate, I jumped without fear. One day, during her next jump, she landed unsuccessfully, fell and lost consciousness. People came running to look at me, “Are I alive?” Then my mother’s legs went paralyzed from frustration. For a long time after this incident, my mother was sick.
I never had extra money, but when I went home for the weekend, I tried to bring at least a small gift for my sister and brother, saving a penny for the gift. Once I was carrying a bottle of lemonade, the guys on the train saw the lemonade and took the bottle from me. I had such grief, and I felt sorry for the money and the resentment ate my soul. I don’t remember that any holidays were held at that time. Somehow everything was always gray and ordinary. I realized that a birthday can be a holiday when I already graduated from pedagogical school and received my first salary. I brought my entire salary to my mother. And my mother told me: “Let’s go, daughter, to the store, choose a dress for yourself, because today is your birthday.” I still remember the style of the dress and the design of the flowers on the fabric.”
Anna Petrovna was 14 years old when the war ended. “I was in a boarding school then,” recalls Anna Petrovna, “everyone was asleep. Suddenly the cook Polina Kuzminichna came in and joyfully announced: “Girls, the war is over!” We all jumped out, jumped on our beds, started throwing pillows with joy, everyone shouted “Hurray!” And no one scolded us then! Classes were cancelled, there were rallies, what was happening on the street! Laughter, tears, joyful screams, music, dancing. All the people came out into the street. Some have tears of joy for the victory, some have tears because they did not see their relatives alive from the front. It was very crowded, it was impossible to get through, to push through! This was a must see! Everyone was happy and having fun like children!”
Many years have passed since the dashing, military times. But Anna Petrovna still had the habit of saving bread and using it to the last piece. Those ears of corn that she, as a child, secretly collected in the fields have not faded from her memory.
The memoirs of Borodkina A.P. were used. And
materials family archive Baranov family, Barnaul.
