Triticale

Triticale is a hybrid cereal crossing wheat, genus Triticum, with rye, genus Secale, its name blending the two parent genus names; early hybrids bred in Scotland and Germany in the late nineteenth century, including a sterile 1873 cross, could not reproduce until 1937, when researchers found that colchicine could induce chromosome doubling to make the cross fertile, and the first commercial variety did not reach growers until 1970. Most commercial triticale is a second-generation hybrid combining two earlier triticales, bred to unite the yield and grain quality of wheat with the disease resistance and tolerance of poor soils and environmental stress found in rye. It is grown mostly for forage and fodder, though it also appears in some breads, pasta, pizza dough and breakfast cereals sold in health food stores, and it carries higher protein and lysine levels than wheat; about 17.1 million tons were harvested in 2014 across 37 countries, led by Poland, Germany, Belarus, France and Russia.