Private lives of wheat

Wheat are romantics! Hopeless romantics – not hapless by any means, though. 😄

It is the sesaon of dancing Wheat. Beginning with contacting the soil first this November and since then, wheat has been challenging. Challenging the sod early on, micromanging the cosm surrounding the biosphere, mobilizing all it could get from pretty much listless ground. After establishing itself too good, given the prolificacy of it’s tillering and the degree of sophisticated root development, it exhibits unmatched potential to tame the other forces of nature – those comprise water, light and air. Neither an atom nor a quanta is wasted. Wheat feasts upon it all to become ever stronger, ever more lushier. It casts it’s influence furthermore by suppressing any growth forms competing it. Wheat is so assertive that none get chance to outgrow once it’s foothold is established. And now, the season is to blame for what it has transformed into – a romantic. Henceforth, i will mostly be divulging about this species on what was observable today at various scales in production plots.

Soon after entering their world, I was somewhat convinced that wheat too were frail, prone to falling the victim of this rowdy season. It had just rained yesterday and past few days were mostly overcast. So naturally, my grievance was against the bad weather but also against the odds of crop possessing sufficient mettle to dodge off the hurl at ease. The scence prompted some sympathy, but there also was room for speculation. I realized that this wheat variety was infact already hurt the last month when we sprayed over the 2,4-D herbicide. Maybe this particular genotype hasn’t got an upper edge when there is a need for chemical weed control. Moving further, there was much to wallow about.

Romance of wheat is concealed. One has to pry through, albeit invasively, to get a vantage point look of private affairs. Although, the sagacious advice would be to stay away from anybodys’ business, wheats are too attention-seeking to dismiss. In the nearby Borlaug-100F plot, I could pluck off the shrouds and see that romantics aren’t just yet caught in the moment. Styles were still too short and anthers plump and green, too young to rehearse the dance.

Nearby plot of HD-2967 were at bloom. I met eyes to a variety of couples, most of them concealing inside warm pockets of lemma and palea and engaging. Most had anthers fleeting midway through the air in contentment. Elongated, sessile folks, some bright yellow and others pale in a gamut of chroma, some dusty full of lives embeded in pollen, were rejoicing the last moments of dance before sinking themselves to exhaustion, all the while letting their partner develop into a wholesome entity – the embryo.

Then, there were some nosy fledglings, smirking from around a corner hiding in the shades, exposing their big green teeth, unapologetically challenging the surrounding and signalling that they too will soon be enjoying the bright sunshine, the fresh air from above the top, and above all relishing this season of love.

Acknowledgement

I retrace my inspiration and appreciation of floral morphology of wheat to a video that caught my eyes a few years back. The video is embeded here, below: