Common name: Cereal Rye, Ryecorn
Secale cereale L. APNI* 
Description: Erect annual to 1.2 m high; culms pubescent with hairs to 0.5 mm long below inflorescence.
Leaves with ligule membranous to 1 mm long, truncate, erose; auricles present, membranous; blade flat, to 13 mm wide, lax, glabrous.
Inflorescence a distichous spike, 5–15 cm long (excluding awns), to 1 cm wide (excluding awns), initially erect, finally drooping; rachis flattened, edges pubescent with hairs < 0.5 mm long. Spikelets 1.5–2.0 mm long (excluding awns), florets 2, bisexual. Glumes 10–15 mm long, subulate or tapering to an awn to 3 mm long, keel scabrous, 1-nerved. Lemmas exserted from glume, 1.5–2.0 mm long, subulate or tapering to an awn, 3-nerved, glabrous, keel and margins hirsute; awn straight, antrorsely barbed, to 5.5 cm long; palea 12–15 mm long.
Flowering: Flowers in spring.
Distribution and occurrence: Cultivated for making bread (usually dark-coloured) and for stock feed. it is a useful sand-binding species for reclamation after mining. Native of the Medit. region.
NSW subdivisions: *ST, *NWS, *CWS, *NWP
Other Australian states: *Vic. *W.A. *S.A.
X Triticale, a wheat/rye hybrid, resembling a vigorous rye plant, is becoming popular as a cereal and forage crop in many parts of the State.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & K. L. McClay
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993); Illustration in Jacobs, S.W.L., Whalley, R.D.B. & Wheeler, D.J.B. Grasses of New South Wales, Fourth Edition (2008).
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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