''Dasypyrum villosum'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

of annual grass in the family Poaceae. It is native to eastern and southern

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

and

Western Asia Western Asia, West Asia, or Southwest Asia, is the westernmost subregion of the larger geographical region of Asia, as defined by some academics, UN bodies and other institutions. It is almost entirely a part of the Middle East, and includes A ...

from the Balearic Islands to

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the s ...

, including in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...

and the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

regions.

Description

Culms are decumbent, with heights ranging from 25 to 70 cm.

Raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the sh ...

s are single, oblong, bilateral, and 4–10 cm long;

spikelet A spikelet, in botany, describes the typical arrangement of the flowers of grasses, sedges and some other Monocots. Each spikelet has one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet tha ...

s are oblong, laterally compressed, and 7–20 mm long.

Stem rust resistance

''D. villosum'' has almost total immunity against ''Puccinia graminis'' f. sp. ''tritici'' and carries '' Sr52'' which offers some resistance against the

Ug99 Ug99 is a lineage of wheat stem rust (''Puccinia graminis'' f. sp. ''tritici''), which is present in wheat fields in several countries in Africa and the Middle East and is predicted to spread rapidly through these regions and possibly further afi ...

subrace of ''P.g.''f.sp.''t.''. The genetic basis for this immunity is being

introgressed Introgression, also known as introgressive hybridization, in genetics is the transfer of genetic material from one species into the gene pool of another by the repeated backcrossing of an interspecific hybrid with one of its parent species. Intr ...

into its close relative,

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeolog ...

, which is suffering from new races of this disease.

References

External links

*
Grassbase - The World Online Grass Flora: ''Dasypyrum villosum''

GBIF entry for ''Dasypyrum villosum''

USDA Plants Profile for ''Dasypyrum villosum''
Pooideae Grasses of Asia Grasses of Europe Flora of Central Asia Flora of Eastern Europe Flora of Southeastern Europe Flora of Southwestern Europe Flora of Western Asia Flora of the Caucasus Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Pooideae-stub