Oat
Avena sativa
Grass family (Poaceae)
Recommended for thousands of years
Oats is a grain that grows up to 1.2 m high and bears a graceful loose, overhanging inflorescence spike at maturity. It has been grown for nearly 10,000 years – since the late Stone Age. Its origin is thought to be in southeast Europe but is no longer found in the wild today. Historically oats was an important crop, growing on sandy soils and providing food for both livestock (horses) and their owners (oatcakes, oatmeal). Originally oats was the most important grain for brewing beer – only later did malting barley become the norm.
While oats is gluten free, it does contain other proteins (avenine) that cause a reaction in some celiac sufferers. Oats was recommended by Hippocrates, Pliny the Elder and Galen for enhancing strength and for its highly nutritious properties.
Themes
Crown jewel in the Holland Open Air Museum.
Oat grain is an ingredient in a wide range of food products, such as breakfast cereals, biscuits, breads and baby foods, and can also be added to meat.
Oats originate from Avena sterilis, a wild oat, which occurred as a weed alongside wheat and barley, and spread out from the Fertile Crescent (a region spreading from Israel to western Iran) to Europe where it became naturalised about 3,000 years ago. In the wetter, colder conditions of Europe, in which oats thrive, it soon became an important cereal in its own right.
Oat is also used as an ingredient for cosmetics and in external preparations to treat eczema and dry skin.
Details
| Description: | Herb, with erect culms (stems), 40–180 cm. |
|---|---|
| Distributions: | Domesticated oats have been traced back to bronze age europe and are now cultivated around the temperate world. |
| Habitat: | This domesticated cereal is widely cultivated in temperate regions. |
| Year cycle: | Flowers only once (monocarpic annuals) |
| Hardiness: | Colder than -4 f (very hardy) |
| Flowering period: | Juni |
| Flower color: | Green |
| Fruiting period: | Augustus |
| Fruit color: | Yellow, brown |
| At its best: | Juni - augustus |