Avena barbata

What to Eat

Edible parts: Seeds, Cereal

Edible Parts: Seed Edible Uses: Coffee Seed - cooked. Rather small. The seed ripens in the latter half of summer and, when harvested and dried, can store for several years. It has a floury texture and a mild, somewhat creamy flavour. It can be used as a staple food crop in either savoury or sweet dishes. The seed can be cooked whole, though it is more commonly ground into a flour and used as a cereal in all the ways that oats are used, especially as a porridge but also to make biscuits, sourdough bread etc. The seed can also be sprouted and eaten raw or cooked in salads, stews etc. The roasted seed is a coffee substitute.

Where to Find It

It grows in Mediterranean climates. It grows in pasture land. In Argentina it grows from sea level to 2,300 m above sea level. Tasmanian Herbarium.

Albania, Argentina, Asia, Australia, Brazil, Central Asia, Chile, Europe, France, Greece, Himalayas, India, Italy, Mediterranean, Middle East, Nepal, Pakistan, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, South America, Spain, Syria, Tajikistan, Tasmania, Turkey, Türkiye, Uruguay, USA,

How to Identify

An erect, tufted annual grass. It grows 75 cm high. The sheaths are open to the base. The lower part is hairy. The flowers are in groups of 2 or 3. They are clustered in spikelets and these are grouped in a head up to 30 cm long. The spikelets are 18-30 mm long and drooping.

How to Grow

Succeeds in any moderately fertile soil in full sun. A triploid species, it is rarely cultivated for its edible seed. Oats are in general easily grown plants but, especially when grown on a small scale, the seed is often completely eaten out by birds. Some sort of netting seems to be the best answer on a garden scale.

Propagation: Seed - sow in situ in early spring or in the autumn. Only just cover the seed. Germination should take place within 2 weeks.

Medicinal Uses

None known

Other Uses

Fibre Mulch Paper Thatching The straw has a wide range of uses such as for bio-mass, fibre, mulch, paper-making and thatching. Some caution is advised in its use as a mulch since oat straw can infest strawberries with stem and bulb eelworm. Special Uses

Avena barbata is a species of wild oat known by the common name slender wild oat. It has edible seeds. It is a diploidized autotetraploid grass (2n=4x=28). Its diploid ancestors are A. hirtula Lag. and A. wiestii Steud (2n=2x=14), which are considered Mediterranean and desert ecotypes, respectively, comprising a single species. A. wiestii and A. hirtula are widespread in the Mediterranean Basin, growing in mixed stands with A. barbata, though they are difficult to tell apart. This is a winter annual grass with thin tillers (stems) growing up to 60 to 80 centimeters in maximum height, but known to sometimes grow taller. The bristly spikelets are 2 to 3 centimeters long, not counting the bent awn which is up to 4 centimeters in length. Avena barbata largely reproduces by selfing in natural populations, with very low rates of outcrossing. A. barbata is native to central Asia (as far east as Pakistan) and the Mediterranean Basin. As an introduced species it also occurs in other Mediterranean-like habitats of New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay. In Europe it has been reported in Finland, France, Germany, Norway, Bulgaria, and Austria. In North America it is an introduced species and noxious weed, where it is especially widespread in California. In California it has displaced native species of grass. It is also found in Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. Genetic evidence indicates that A. barbata in Argentina and California originated from Spain, during the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Notes

There are about 25 Avena species.

More from Poaceae

Achnatherum hymenoides

Indian ricegrass

Acidosasa chinensis

Chinese sour bamboo

Acidosasa edulis

Edible sour bamboo

No photo

Acidosasa lingchuanensis

No photo

Acidosasa purpurea

Maohua sour bamboo

Acroceras amplectens

Jajeo