Plant · P-677

Rye

Secale cereale

Rye is the toughest of the cereal grains, thriving in cold, drought and poor soil where wheat and barley give up. The grain mills into the dark, dense bread flour of northern Europe and malts into beer and whiskey, while the whole plant doubles as one of the best cover crops available - it smothers weeds by sheer bulk and by releasing chemicals from its roots that suppress weed germination. Farmers also graze and cut it for winter forage, but the grain needs care at harvest: heads infected with ergot fungus turn dangerous, causing convulsions and gangrene in people and livestock that eat them.