Cultivated as a food source for more than 9000 years, wheat has undergone many changes in the process of its
domestication. A likely ancestor to all cultivated wheats is wild einkorn, the small grains and long, brittle stalks of which
typify early species such as einkorn, still cultivated as animal feed; wild emmer with slightly larger grains; and emmer,
widely used by the Greeks and Romans and closely related to the modern wheats at right. The strength and large
grains of spelt wheat, a hybrid still grown in Europe, offered a radically high yield from fewer plants. Further
modifications produced the large-grained durum wheat used to make most pasta, as well as bread wheat, high in
gluten to make bread dough elastic and airy.
