Editing Cereal (section)

== Biology ==

[[File:Triticum aestivum - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen-274.jpg|thumb|Structure of a cereal, [[wheat]]. A: Plant; B ripe ear of grains; 1 [[spikelet]] before flowering; 2 the same, flowering and spread, enlarged; 3 flowers with [[glume]]s; 4 [[stamen]]s 5 [[pollen]]; 6 and 7 ovaries with juice scales; 8 and 9 parts of the scar; 10 fruit husks; 11–14 grains, natural size and enlarged.]]

Cereals are grasses, in the [[Poaceae]] family, that produce edible [[grain]]s. A cereal grain is botanically a [[caryopsis]], a [[fruit]] where the [[seed coat]] is fused with the [[pericarp]].<ref name="Juliano Tuaño 2019">{{cite book |last1=Juliano |first1=Bienvenido O. |last2=Tuaño |first2=Arvin Paul P. |title=Rice |chapter=Gross structure and composition of the rice grain |publisher=Elsevier |date=2019 |isbn=978-0-12-811508-4 |doi=10.1016/b978-0-12-811508-4.00002-2 |pages=31–53}}</ref>{{sfn|Rosentrater|Evers|2018|p=5}} Grasses have [[Plant stem|stems]] that are hollow except at the [[Nodes (botany)|nodes]] and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks.<ref name="Clayton">{{cite book |last1=Clayton |first1=W.D. |title=Genera Graminum: Grasses of the world |last2=Renvoise |first2=S.A. |date=1986 |publisher=[[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]] |isbn=978-1900347754 |location=[[London]]}}</ref> The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath. The leaf grows from the base of the blade, an adaptation that protects the growing meristem from grazing animals.<ref name="Clayton"/><ref name="BSBI13">{{cite book |last1=Cope |first1=T. |title=Grasses of the British Isles |last2=Gray |first2=A. |date=2009 |publisher=[[Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland]] |isbn=978-0901158420 |location=[[London]]}}</ref> The flowers are usually [[hermaphroditic]], with the exception of [[maize]], and mainly [[Anemophily|anemophilous]] or wind-pollinated, although insects occasionally play a role.<ref name="Clayton"/><ref>{{Cite journal |year=1964 |title=Insect Pollination of Grasses |journal=[[Australian Journal of Entomology]] |volume=3 |pages=74 |doi=10.1111/j.1440-6055.1964.tb00625.x |doi-access=}}</ref>

Among the best-known cereals are maize, [[rice]], wheat, barley, [[sorghum]], [[millet]], oat, rye and [[triticale]].{{sfn|Rosentrater|Evers|2018|pp=2–3}} Some other grains are colloquially called cereals, even though they are not grasses; these [[pseudocereal]]s include [[buckwheat]], [[quinoa]], and [[amaranth]].{{sfn|Rosentrater|Evers|2018|pp=68–69}}