Oat Morphology and Taxonomy

Abstract

The morphological characters used for classification and identification are those of the spikelet. Additional characters that may be critical for accurate identification are chromosome number and potential for hybridization with other species. The taxonomy of the genus Avena in this book is based on that of Malzew, with a number of important changes such as omission of the taxon A. macrostachya from the genus. Determination of the Avena species is based on the biological species concept, which reflects mainly evolutionary and genetic features together with morphological and ecological uniqueness. Accordingly, a key to the various species is presented, and this is followed by a description of each species.