cereal rye

(Secale cereale)

Conservation Status
cereal rye
 
  IUCN Red List

not listed

     
  NatureServe

NNA - No Status Rank

SNA - No Status Rank

     
  Minnesota

not listed

     
           
Weed Status
   
 

Cereal rye is on the Noxious Weed List in 46 states, but it is not listed in Minnesota

     
           
           
 
Description
 
 

Cereal rye is an annual, exotic, tuft-forming grass.

The stem (culm) is slender, erect, hollow between the nodes, branched from the base, leafy, and 20 to 48 in height, over-topping the leaves. The culm surface is bluish-green and covered with a whitish, waxy film (glaucous). It is usually hairless, sometimes hairy below the spike.

The lower part of the leaf that surrounds the stem (sheath) is usually shorter than the distance between the nodes. It is open, not fused together most of the way to the top. The sheath on the lowermost leaf may be hairy, but those of the other leaves are hairless.

The appendage at the inner (upper) surface at the tip of the leaf sheath (ligule) is 1 32 (1 mm) long. It is thin, pliable, more or less transparent (membranous), and straight across (truncate) at the top but often irregularly cut and appearing torn (lacerate).

The leaf blade is flat, grass-like (linear), parallel-veined, usually hairless, up to 11¾ long, and to ½ wide. There are often small projections (auricles) at the base.

The inflorescence is a single dense spike at the end of the stem. The spike is slender, linear-oblong in outline, somewhat flattened, and 2 to 6 long not counting the bristle-like tips (awns). It is somewhat nodding at maturity. The spike is composed of numerous, crowded, alternate, spikelets, a solitary spikelet at each node of the inflorescence. They are positioned with a flat side against the axis (rachis).

The spikelets are all similar in appearance and size. At the base of each spikelet there are two sterile bracts (glumes), the first one the lower, the second one the upper. There are usually two florets on a short axis (rachilla). When there is a third, the third is undeveloped (rudimentary) and above the others. The florets consist of an outer bract (lemma), an inner bract (palea), and 2 fleshy scales (lodicules) at the base of the stamens or pistil. The male floret has 3 yellow, ¼ to 5 16 long stamens. The female floret has 1 pistil with 2 styles. The upper and lower glumes are similar in size in shape, narrowly linear, sharply pointed, ¼ to ½ (6 to 13 mm) long, and 1 64 to 1 32 (0.5 to 1.0 mm) wide. They have 1 nerve and a raised ridge (keel). They are hairless but the keel is rough. The lemma is thickened, somewhat hard, 7 16 to (11 to 16 mm) long, and elliptic egg-shaped. It has 5 nerves and a keel that is off-center. The keel continues as a bristle-like extension (awn) that is up to 2¾ long. The lemma is hairless except for a line of stiff hairs on the keel and on the margins. The palea is shorter than the lemma. At maturity, the spikelet breaks off (disarticulates) above the glume and between the florets.

The fruit is an oblong, ¼ to long, specialized capsule (caryopsis) in which the ovary wall is fused to the seed coat. It is yellowish-brown to orangish-brown, deeply grooved, and hairy at the tip.

 
     
 

Height

 
 

20 to 48

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
     
     
 
Habitat
 
 

Roadsides, old fields, and other disturbed areas

 
     
 
Ecology
 
 

Flowering

 
 

July to August

 
     
 

Pests and Diseases

 
 

 

 
     
 
Use
 
 

Cereal rye is widely cultivated as a food crop.. It is often seeded in road banks following construction as a cover crop to prevent soil erosion.

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 22, 28, 29, 30.

 
  3/23/2023      
         
 

Nativity

 
 

Native to Europe, Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. Widely cultivated. Often escapes but rarely persists.

 
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

 

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Plantae (green algae and land plants)  
  Subkingdom Viridiplantae (green plants)  
  Infrakingdom Streptophyta (land plants and green algae)  
  Superdivision Embryophyta (land plants)  
  Division Tracheophyta (vascular plants)  
  Subdivision Spermatophytina (seed plants)  
  Class Liliopsida (monocots)  
 

Order

Poales (grasses, sedges, cattails, and allies)  
 

Family

Poaceae (grasses)  
  No Rank BOP clade  
  Subfamily Pooideae  
  Supertribe Triticodae  
  Tribe Triticeae  
  Subtribe Hordeinae  
 

Genus

Secale (rye)  
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

Secale turkestanicum

Triticum cereale

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

cereal rye

common rye

cultivated annual rye

cultivated rye

rye

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Auricle

A small, ear-like projection at the base of a leaf or at the junction of a grass blade and stem.

 

Awn

A stiff, bristle-like appendage at the tip of the glume, lemma, or palea of grass florets.

 

Bract

Modified leaf at the base of a flower stalk, flower cluster, or inflorescence.

 

Culm

The hollow or pithy stem of a grass, sedge, or rush.

 

Glaucous

Pale green or bluish gray due to a whitish, powdery or waxy film, as on a plum or a grape.

 

Glume

A chaffy, empty, sterile bract at the base of a grass spikelet. Glumes usually occur in pairs, but occasionally only one is present.

 

Ligule

In grasses, a membranous appendage at the junction of the leaf and the leaf sheath, sometimes no more than a fringe of hairs. In flowering plants, the flat, strap-shaped, petal-like portion of the corolla of a ray floret.

 

Membranous

Thin, pliable, and more or less transparent.

 

Node

The small swelling of the stem from which one or more leaves, branches, or buds originate.

 

Rachis

The main axis of a compound leaf, appearing as an extension of the leaf stalk; the main axis of an inflorescence.

 

Sheath

The lower part of the leaf that surrounds the stem.

 

Spikelet

In flowering plants, a small spike. In grasses and sedges, the basic unit of inflorescence. In grasses, composed of usually two glumes and one or more florets. In sedges, a single flower and its single associated scale.

 
 
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Created: 7/4/2019

Last Updated:

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