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Poaceae FAMILY

Avena byzantina

Avena byzantina

Edibility
3/5
Medicinal
0/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual
Growth—

Avena byzantina is a plant of the warm temperate zone, though it can also be cultivated in the subtropics and tropics. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 18 - 28°c, but can tolerate 2 - 36°c[1]. When dormant, the plant can survive temperatures down to about -19°c, but young growth can be severely damaged at -1°c[1]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 600 - 900mm, but tolerates 400 - 1,100mm[1]. Succeeds in any moderately fertile, well-drained soil in full sun[2, 1]. Succeeds in somewhat saline soils[3]. Prefers a pH in the range 5.5 - 7, but can tolerate 5 - 8.2[1]. Average seed yield is about 1.8 - 2 tonnes per hectare, while good yields can reach 3 tonnes[1]. Plants can take from 110 - 270 days from sowing to harvesting A hexaploid species Oats are in general easily grown plants but, especially when grown on a small scale, the seed is often completely eaten out by birds. Some sort of netting seems to be the best answer on a garden scale.

Propagation

Seed - sow in situ in early spring or in the autumn. Only just cover the seed. Germination should take place within 2 weeks. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Avena+byzantina>

Pollinators

Wind

References

  1. [1]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
  2. [2]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  3. [3]Flora Europaea — ? · Cambridge University Press · 1964 · ISBN - ↩︎An immense work in 6 volumes (including the index). The standard reference flora for Europe, it is very terse though and with very little extra information. Not for the casual reader.
  4. [4]Plants for Man. — Schery. R. W. ↩︎Fairly readable but not very comprehensive. Deals with plants from around the world.
  5. [5]Tanaka's Cyclopedia of Edible Plants of the World. — Tanaka. T. & Nakao S. · Keigaku Publishing; Tokyo · 1976 · ISBN - ↩︎The most comprehensive list of edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.
  6. [6]Economic Botany. — Hill. A. F. · The Maple Press · 1952 · ISBN - ↩︎Not very comprehensive, but it is quite readable and goes into some detail about the plants it does cover.
  7. [7]Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications · 1990 · ISBN 0-9628087-0-9 ↩︎Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.