The
oats are a
genusIn biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of 10-15
speciesIn biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of true grasses (
familyIn biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
PoaceaeThe Poaceae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called grasses, although the term "grass" is also applied to plants that are not in the Poaceae lineage, including the rushes and sedges...
). They are native to
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
,
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and northwest
AfricaAfrica is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. One species is widely cultivated elsewhere, and several have become naturalized in many parts of the world. All oats have edible
seedA seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s, though they are small and hard to harvest in most species.
Ecology
Avena species, including cultivated oats, are used as food plants by the
larvaA larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e of some
LepidopteraLepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
species including
Rustic Shoulder-knotThe Rustic Shoulder-knot is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is distributed throughout Europe and is also found in North America....
and
Setaceous Hebrew CharacterThe Setaceous Hebrew Character is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic ecozone. It is a common species throughout Europe. It is also found in North America, from coast to coast across Canada and the northern United States to western Alaska. It occurs in the Rocky Mountains...
.
For diseases of oats, see
List of oats diseases.
Cultivated oats
One species is of major commercial importance as a
cerealCereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
grain. Four other species are grown as crops of minor or regional importance.
- Avena sativa – (Common) Oat, a cereal crop of global importance and the species commonly referred to as "Oats"
- Avena abyssinica
Avena abyssinica or Ethiopian oat is a member of the family Poaceae. This grain has long been used in Ethiopia and is well adapted to the high elevations and other conditions there. Still a traditional food plant in Africa, this little-known grain has potential to improve nutrition, boost food...
– Ethiopian Oat, "a half-weed, half-crop confined to the highlands of EthiopiaEthiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
."
- Avena byzantina, a minor crop in the Near
The Near East is a geographical term that covers different countries for geographers, archeologists, and historians, on the one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other...
and Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
- Avena nuda
Avena nuda is a species of grass with edible seeds.-External links:***...
– Naked Oat or Hulless Oat, plays much the same role in Europe as does A. abyssinica in Ethiopia. It is sometimes included in A. sativa and was widely grown in Europe before the latter replaced it. As its nutrientA nutrient is a chemical that an organism needs to live and grow or a substance used in an organism's metabolism which must be taken in from its environment. They are used to build and repair tissues, regulate body processes and are converted to and used as energy...
content is somewhat better than that of Common Oat, A. nuda has increased in significance in recent years, especially in organic farmingOrganic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm...
- Avena strigosa
Avena strigosa is a species of grass native to Europe, and its seeds are edible. This plant is often cultivated as animal feed in the south Brazil, and it is sometimes reported as a weed.-References: Carneiro, A.M. Forragicultura. Belo Horizonte: Escola Veterinária da UFMG.-External links:**...
– Lopsided Oat or Bristle Oat or Black Oats, grown for fodderFodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...
in parts of Western Europe and BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
Wild oats
These species, called
wild oats or
oat-grasses, are nuisance
weedA weed in a general sense is a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance, and normally applied to unwanted plants in human-controlled settings, especially farm fields and gardens, but also lawns, parks, woods, and other areas. More specifically, the term is often used to...
s in cereal crops, as, being grasses like the crop, they cannot be chemically removed; any
herbicideHerbicides, also commonly known as weedkillers, are pesticides used to kill unwanted plants. Selective herbicides kill specific targets while leaving the desired crop relatively unharmed. Some of these act by interfering with the growth of the weed and are often synthetic "imitations" of plant...
that would kill them would also damage the crop.
- Avena barbata
Avena barbata is a species of wild oat known by the common name slender wild oat. It has edible seeds. It is native to central Asia and the Mediterranean Basin. It is also known in North America as an introduced species and noxious weed. It is widespread in California, where it has displaced native...
– Slender Wild Oat
- Avena brevis
Avena brevis is a species of grass, and its seeds are edible.-Synonyms :There are a number of synonyms:* Avena uniflora Parl. * Avena sativa var. brevis Körn.* Avena strigosa var. abbreviata Hausskn....
– Short Oat
- Avena fatua
Avena fatua is a species of grass in the oat genus. It is known as the common wild oat. This oat is native to Eurasia but it has been introduced to most of the other temperate regions of the world. It is naturalized in some areas and considered a noxious weed in others...
– Common Wild Oat
- Avena maroccana – Moroccan Oat
- Avena occidentalis – Western Oat
- Avena pubescens – Downy Oat-grass
- Avena pratensis – Meadow Oat-grass
- Avena spicata – Poverty Oat-grass
- Avena sterilis
Avena sterilis is a species of grass weed, and its seeds are edible.-External links:***...
– Winter Wild Oat
"Sowing wild oats" is a phrase used since at least the 16th century; it appears in a 1542
tractA tract is a literary work, and in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, these meant small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, though far more often the former. They are...
by
Thomas BecconThomas Beccon was a British Protestant reformer from Norfolk. He studied under Hugh Latimer and was ordained in 1533. He was arrested for Protestant preaching and was forced to recant around 1540. He then began to write under the pen name of "Theodore Basille." When Edward VI came to the...
, a Protestant clergyman from
NorfolkNorfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
. Apparently, a similar expression was used in
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
an times already, e.g. by
PlautusTitus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
. The origin of the expression is the fact that wild oats, notably
A. fatua, are a major weed in oat farming. Among European cereal grains, oats are hardest to tell apart from their weed relatives, which look almost alike but yield little grain. The life cycle of
A. fatua is nearly synchronous with that of Common Oat (see also
Vavilovian mimicryVavilovian mimicry is a form of mimicry in plants where a weed comes to share one or more characteristics with a domesticated plant through generations of artificial selection. It is named after Nikolai Vavilov, a prominent Russian plant geneticist who identified the centres of origin of...
) and in former times it could only be kept at bay by checking one's oat plants one by one and hand-weeding the wild ones when they were in flower but the grains had not ripened yet, lest the wild oats seeded themselves out. Consequently, "sowing wild oats" became a way to describe unprofitable activities. Given the reputation of oat grain to have invigorating properties and the obvious connection between plant seeds and human "
seedSemen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
", it is not surprising that the meaning of the phrase shifted towards more or less explicitly referring to the destructive sexual liaisons of an unmarried young male, possibly resulting in unwanted children born out of wedlock.