Plant · P-679

Oat

Avena sativa

Oats are grown more for livestock feed than for people - about seventy percent of the crop goes to horses, cattle, sheep and poultry, and it is the traditional horse grain because its low starch-to-fibre ratio makes it easy on the gut. The rest becomes porridge, flour and pressed oil, plus a real medicinal history: oat straw has long been used to settle nerves and ease insomnia, and the grain to gently lower cholesterol. Among the cereals it is the most acid-tolerant and the most flood-tolerant, growing on heavier, wetter, more acid ground than wheat or barley will take, though a hot spell right before heading can still cut the grain yield hard.