Scientific Name
Secale cereale L. (Synonyms: Secale montanum; Secale strictum; Triticum cereale)
Common Name(s)
Cereal rye, common rye, winter rye, cultivated rye
Tribe / Family Name
Triticeae
Flowering Period
May to August
Symbol
SECE
Description
Cereal rye is an introduced cool-season annual or biennial bunchgrass. Culms usually range from 50–120 cm in height. Its inflorescence is a dense spike usually 8–14 cm long, somewhat nodding, and shattering at maturity. Spikelets 1 per rachis node, 2(3)-flowered, and awned (the glumes awns 1-3 mm long; the lemma awns 7-50 mm long). Auricles are up to 1 mm long and clasping the culm. Ligules are usually 0.5–1.5 mm long, membranous, truncate, often lacerate, and glabrous.
General Info
Cereal rye can be found along roadsides where it is often used for soil stabilization, as well as ditchbanks, railroad tracks, waste places, foothills, plains, and montane sites.
Similar Species
Cereal rye may look similar to other grasses in the Triticeae tribe because of its terminal spike seed heads and presence of auricles. Remember to look for the ciliate margins on the lemmas and its long scabrous, mostly straight awns (up to 50 mm) when comparing it to other grasses in this tribe.
Picture of growth habit.
Close-up picture of spike inflorescence.
Close-up picture of spikelet.
Close-up picture of membranous ligule.
Illustration of cereal rye. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase). 1950. <i>Manual of the grasses of the United States</i>. USDA Miscellaneous Publication No. 200. Washington, DC.