New Hall Mill - The Evolution of Wheat

The Evolution of Wheat - Spelt

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By about 9,000 BP, when the tetraploid Cultivated Emmer had reached an area around the south west of the Caspian Sea, it had entered the natural range of the diploid Goat Grass, Aegilops tauschii, a weed growing in and around the fields of Emmer Wheat. Pollen from this Goat Grass pollinated some of the Emmer and, by the process of amphiploidy, created Spelt, Triticum spelta, the first hexaploid hybrid.
This new hybrid, like the parent Emmer Wheat and Goat Grass, had a brittle rachis that fragmented into individual segments when threshed, each retaining the grain in a hard shell or 'hull'.

Spelt initially occurred in a mixture with Emmer but was later cultivated separately in many parts of Europe. It spread around the north of the Alps before reaching Britain in the Bronze Age, about 3,500 BP. Here it was grown until replaced about 2,000 BP by a free-threshing wheat introduced by the Romans. Spelt almost disappeared from cultivation but is now grown in some parts of Europe, especially Germany, and in smaller quantities in Britain and America.