Cereal
Cereals (from Ceres, goddess of agricultureCH). The agricultural grains, properly those of the grass family: maize or Indian corn, kafir, wheat, emmer, spelt, rice, oats, barley, rye, sorghum (for grain); popularly held to include buckwheat, but not accurately soCH.
List of Cereals
Major grainswp. All but buckwheat and quinoa are true grasses (these two are pseudocereals).
Grain | |
---|---|
Maize | A staple food of peoples in North America, South America, and Africa and of livestock worldwide; often called "corn" or "Indian corn" in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. |
Wheat | The primary cereal of temperate regions |
Rice[1] | The primary cereal of tropical regions |
Barley | Grown for malting and livestock on land too poor or too cold for wheat |
Sorghums | Important staple food in Asia and Africa and popular worldwide for livestock |
Millets | A group of similar but distinct cereals that form an important staple food in Asia and Africa. |
Oats | Formerly the staple food of Scotland and popular worldwide for livestock |
Rye | Important in cold climates |
Triticale | Hybrid of wheat and rye, grown similarly to rye |
Buckwheat | Used in Europe and Asia. Major uses include various pancakes and groats |
Fonio | Several varieties of which are grown as food crops in Africa |
Quinoa | Ancient pseudocereal, grown in the Andes |
Maize, wheat and rice, between them, accounted for 87% of all grain production, worldwide, and 43% of all food calories in 2003.[2] Other grains that are important in some places, but that have little production globally (and are not included in FAO statistics), include:
- Teff, popular in Ethiopia but scarcely known elsewhere
- Wild rice, grown in small amounts in North America
- Grain amaranth, ancient pseudocereal, formerly a staple crop of the Aztec Empire
- Kañiwa, close relative of quinoa
Several other species of wheat have also been domesticated, some very early in the history of agriculture:
- Spelt, a close relative of common wheat
- Einkorn, a wheat species with a single grain
- Emmer, one of the first crops domesticated in the Fertile Crescent
- Durum, the only tetraploid species of wheat currently cultivated, used to make semolina
Source: Wikipediawp