Secale segetale (Zhuk.) Roshev.

A common weed of grain crops. 1700-2700 m.

Culms tufted, erect or geniculate at base, glaucous, to 100 cm tall, glabrous, or pilose below spike. Leaf blade flat or involute, 10–40 × 0.3–0.8 cm, scabrous or adaxial surface pubescent. Spike 4–13 × ca. 1 cm excluding awns; rachis fragile, or sometimes tough proximally, margin ciliate. Spikelets lanceolate, 12–15(–17) mm, with 2(or 3) florets. Glumes 9–12 mm, glabrous or sparsely puberulent, shortly scabrous-ciliate along keels, apex acuminate or with awn to 5 mm. Lemma long lanceolate, 8–12 mm, glabrous, smooth, rarely scabrous; awn 20–70 mm. Palea equaling lemma. Fl. and fr. (May–)Jul–Aug. 2n = 14*.

Tufted glaucous annual; culms up to 100 cm high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades flat or rolled, up to 20 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, scabrid. Spike 4-13 cm long (excluding the awns); rhachis fragile or sometimes tough below, shortly ciliate along the margins. Spikelets 2(-3)-flowered; glumes 9-12 mm long, shortly scabrid-ciliate on the keel, acuminate or with an awn up to 5 mm long; lemmas 8-12 mm long, with an awn 2-7 cm long.

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan, N.W.F.P. & Gilgit); Middle East and southern USSR from the Caucasus to Central Asia.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: (May-) July-August.

A weed in fields of Triticum. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia].

Secale cereale Linnaeus subsp. segetale Zhukovsky, Trudy Prikl. Bot. 19(2): 56. 1928; S. afghanicum (Vavilov) Roshevitz; S. cereale subsp. afghanicum (Vavilov) K. Hammer; S. cereale var. afghanicum Vavilov; S. segetale subsp. afghanicum (Vavilov) Bondar ex Korovina; S. segetale var. afghanicum (Vavilov) Tzvelev.