Cereal

Poaceae

Cereals

• Genetically – originated from Asia, Central and South America and Africa.

Good crop:– Palatibility– Quantity satisfaction– Nutritional value– Digestibity– Toxic property– Seasonal availabilty– Storage life– Preparation requirement– presentation

Cereals

• Named after Ceres, the Roman Goddess of agriculture

• Poaceae members• Grain is a fruit – caryopsis• 70% of Earth’s farmland – feeding humans and

animals• Three major categories

– Major cereal– Minor cereal– Wild cereal

• Pseudocereal – non-poaceae members

Cereals

• 30,000 yrs ago paleolithic people collected seeds. Still followed by aborigines of Australia

• Delta of Nile and fertile Cresent – 8000 -7000 BC

• Wide spread in Mediterranean basin, Western Asia and Western Europe – 4000 yrs

Vegetative

• Vegetatively, grasses have several features. – The stems are round in cross section, the

internodes are hollow, the nodes are solid, – the leaves are flat and 2-ranked, – the bases of the leaves have an open sheath

that encircles the stem, and t– here is often a ligule present at the juncture of

the sheath and the leaf blade.

Inflorescence

• The inflorescences of grasses also have distinctive characteristics. – The basic unit of an inflorescence is a

spikelet, which contains 1 or more flowers. – At the base of the spikelet are 2 bracts called

glumes. – The spikelets can be arranged in panicles,

racemes, spikes, or other types.

Poaceae

• The flowers of Poaceae are small, lack petals, and are pollinated by wind. The 2 sepals are modified into lodicules. There are 3 stamens that hang down and the anthers shed pollen into the wind. The syncarpous gynoecium has 2 carpels, the ovary is superior, the styles are feather-like to catch pollen from the wind, and the ovary is 1-locular with 1 basal ovule.

Poaceae (The grass family)

• Caryopsis - A one-seeded dry indehiscent fruit (achene) with the thin pericarp adherent to the seed.