ABSTRACT
Like wheat, barley, and oats, rye is a member of the grass family, the tribe “Gramineae.” It is a typical allogamous plant species that shows a high degree of self-incompatibility. The divergence of the wheat and rye lineages from the “Pooideae” happened ~7 million years ago (mya) (Kingdom: Plantae, Division: Magnoliophyta, Class: Liliopsida, Order: Poales, Family: Poaceae, Subfamily: Pooideae, Tribe: Triticeae). The angiosperms evolved ~145 mya, during the late Jurassic period, and were eaten by dinosaurs. They became the dominant land plants ~100 mya (edging out conifers, a type of gymnosperm). Angiosperms are then divided into monocots (grasses) and dicots (see Table 2.1).
