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The increased role of wheat’s wild relatives and underutilized species for food secu­rity, sustainability, and crop improvement has been recognized. Wild and domesti­cated relatives of wheat from the genera Aegilops and Triticum can be invaluable resources of genetic diversity for crop improvement. However, because of the limi­tations with studying these wild relatives, most investigations have concentrated on cultivated forms or landraces. Among these, the ancient wheats (einkorn, emmer, spelt, macha, and vavilovii), both in wild and cultivated forms, have received expanding interest in recent years. Ancient wheats are characterized by “non-threshable grain from the hull” during the traditional threshing processes. Ancient wheats originated from Southeastern Turkey, however, are not commonly grown there today. They exist in small, higher elevation regions throughout Turkey, such as Kastamonu, Samsun, Kars, Sinop, Bolu, Bayburt, Gümüşhane, and Kayseri. Generally, these locations have harsher environmental conditions, which may be a reason for farmer preference with these species.

Even though there are multiple species within each ploidy level of Triticum (dip­loid, tetraploid and hexaploid), the most widely grown ancient wheat is Triticum monococcum ssp. monococcum L., einkorn wheat (Siyez or IZA in Turkish). This species is grown today as animal feed, and as human food in some places. Cultivation of ancient wheat dates to 12–14,000 years, and expansion of free-threshing, high- yielding wheat pushed this species to small, mostly marginal lands with poor soils or higher elevations. Ancient wheats are grown today in Turkey, Albania, Austria, Spain, and Germany. In addition to einkorn wheat, emmer (T. dicoccum Schrank) and spelt wheat (T. spelta L.) are other noteworthy forms of ancient wheat species. Lesser-known ancient wheat species include T. macha Dekarp. & Menabde, and T. vavilovii Thum. Efforts on wheat breeding since ancient times are mostly concen­trated on grain yield. The most important yield component was starch content. Since starch is mostly stored in endosperm tissue, larger endosperm has been a preference by farmer and consumer. With grain yield as the most important trait of interest, gluten, protein, starch contents, and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance/resistance have been additional aims in most breeding programs.