Ensuring the Survival of
Sacramental Wheats
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Some of the first wheats to reach Mexico, so-called sacramental wheats offer a glimpse into the past—and possibly the future—of wheat. |
A "Snapshot" of a 16th Century Wheat
Brought to Mexico in the 16th century by Spanish monks, sacramental wheats provided grain for making the host, an unleavened wafer consecrated during the Roman Catholic Mass (hence the name sacramental). Mexico's indigenous people had a grain of their own maize but for religious reasons the host must be made of wheat. The monks gave the Indians wheat to sow after their maize harvest. Consequently, "wheat spread as fast in Mexico as the Catholic religion did," says Bent Skovmand, head of the CIMMYT wheat genebank.
Conditions in some regions where those wheats were sown, such as the Altos de Mixteca in the state of Oaxaca, which is very dry, are far from ideal for growing wheat. Nonetheless, sacramental wheats have been grown there through the centuries and can be found in farmers' fields to this day. They are thought to be directly descended from the wheats introduced by the monks in 1540. Because wheat is not normally sown in places such as the Altos de Mixteca, the sacramental wheats probably were never crossed with other wheat varieties, leaving their genetic heritage essentially intact.
The potential value of these wheats lies in the fact that so few of their type are known, especially in the Americas. If present-day sacramental wheats are representative of the ones introduced by the Spaniards, they might tell us much about Iberian wheats in the 16th century. They may reveal, for example, whether the taste and other baking qualities of wheat have actually improved in the centuries that have passed since they arrived in Oaxaca. Comments Skovmand, "The farmers who grow sacramental wheats claim they taste much better than modern varieties."
When Traditions Die,
Biodiversity Can Die, Too
One of the important functions of a genebank is to conserve samples of as many different types of a plant species as possible. Of special concern are plants at risk of disappearing, such as those that will be flooded out of existence when a dam reservoir is filled, or lost when the farmers who plant them die or migrate to the cities. Sacramental wheats, grown by very few farmers in Oaxaca, are considered to be among the latter.
A few years ago, Skovmand heard of these and other rare wheats and decided it was important to collect samples for conservation. He obtained funding from CONABIO, Mexico's Organization for the Study of Biodiversity, to conduct wheat-gathering expeditions in 23 Mexican states. As a result, 10,000 new samples collected in 249 sites in 19 states were added to our collection. Duplicate samples were deposited in the germplasm bank of Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP, the national agricultural research program) in Chapingo, Mexico.
Sacramental wheats are not the only wheats among the new collections that have long been sown for special purposes in Mexico. Two farmer varieties from the state of Michoacán, for example, are grown exclusively for their straw, which is woven into ornaments.
The obvious risk to these and other rare varieties is that their survival depends on the small groups of people who grow them and who might one day abandon their traditional way of life. If such varieties are stored in a genebank, they and their genetic endowment should be available indefinitely. Perhaps one day breeders seeking to raise grain production in marginal environments will find what they seek in 16th century wheats.
For more information:
Bent Skovmand (b.skovmand@cgiar.org)
August, 2004