Rye
Secale cereale
Botanical family: Poaceae
Secale cereale, native to Central Asia, grown in France mainly in acid mid-mountain regions (Limousin, Massif Central, Alps). Traditional rye bread (German, Scandinavian, Alsatian). Its parasite, ergot, gave modern medicine alkaloids (ergotamine, ergonovine).
Full sun
Poor, acid
Low: a cereal that tolerates drought and poor soils
Very hardy annual: it is the cereal that best withstands winter cold
Sown in autumn, overwinters in your zone
Cross-pollinating: wind carries pollen from plant to plant
Better crops with several plants or two varieties
Role in permaculture
A very hardy cereal of poor, acid soils, grows where wheat gives up. An excellent winter green manure: reputed to open the soil with its deep fibrous roots, a nitrate trap, significant biomass. Its allelopathy (benzoxazinoids) smothers weeds, which makes it a cleaning cover, but it can also hold back a crop sown right after: leave 2 to 3 weeks after destruction before sowing small seeds. Very long straw used as cover (mulch, the traditional roof of peasant cowsheds).
Good companions
Fix nitrogen from the air (legumes)
Insects attracted or useful
Seasons & availability
A hardy cereal sown mainly in autumn, from late August to November, and harvested for grain in early summer; it is also a valuable winter green manure, covering the soil from autumn until it is turned in come spring.
Available: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
Guidance for the oceanic / temperate climate; it may vary with your region, altitude, exposure and growing method.
Sources
- GNIS (Semencemag), « Seigle, techniques de culture et activités pédagogiques » (semencemag.fr/images/fiches_bo/cultiver-jardiner-seigle.pdf)
- RHS, « Green manures » (rhs.org.uk/soil-composts-mulches/green-manures)
- Livre Blanc Céréales (Wallonie), « Date de semis » (livre-blanc-cereales.be/thematiques/semis/date-de-semis/)
- Plants For A Future, « Secale cereale » (pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Secale+cereale)
Nutritional & medicinal properties
For educational purposes. Not a substitute for medical advice. Effects depend on the form, the dose and personal context.
Precautions & contraindications
Major danger: rye ergot (Claviceps purpurea), a parasitic fungus that infects the flowers in damp weather and forms blackish-purple grains in the ear, produces highly toxic alkaloids (including ergotamine). In the Middle Ages it caused ergotism, the 'burning sickness': necrosis of the limbs and burning sensations. Sort the grain and discard any ergot before eating: after harvest, cleaning the grain is the only way to deal with it. Rye contains gluten: to be avoided in case of coeliac disease or intolerance. For any medicinal use of ergot derivatives, rely on medical advice. Sources: ARVALIS, “Ergot du seigle: un champignon producteur d'alcaloïdes” (2013); EFSA (2012), “Scientific Opinion on Ergot alkaloids in food and feed”, EFSA Journal 10(7):2798; INRAE, Quasaprove, “Ergot - mycotoxines”.
Family behaviour: Poaceae
In general, Poaceae structure and aerate the soil with their dense fibrous roots (maize, wheat, barley, rye, oats), and leave a precious straw for mulching. Hungry for nitrogen for the grain (especially maize), they make excellent winter green manures (rye, oats).
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Species & varieties
The best-known species and varieties in France.
Common varieties
Voices of peoples
Paraphrases attributed to their documented sources. Never an invented quote.
Monastic chroniclers of medieval Europe, including Sigebert of Gembloux · Lotharingia and France, 11th–12th century (recurrent epidemics)
The monastic chroniclers of medieval Europe describe epidemics of 'holy fire' (ignis sacer), also called the burning sickness or St Anthony's fire: limbs blackened like charcoal, burns, gangrene, and convulsions. Sigebert of Gembloux thus reports, for the year 1089, a multitude of sick people with blackened limbs, many of whom died or lost hands and feet, while the hospital order of the Antonines devoted itself to caring for them. Modern medicine links this scourge to ergot (Claviceps purpurea), a fungus parasitic on rye and the basis of the bread of the poor, but this link is a retrospective reconstruction: never formulated in the Middle Ages, it was established only much later, and some historians judge partly over-interpreted the systematic identification of every 'holy fire' with ergotism.
Sigebert de Gembloux, Chronica (année 1089), transmis par la littérature savante sur l'ergotisme (p. ex. « Notes sur l'ergotisme en Brabant », Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, 2002) ; synthèse encyclopédique World History Encyclopedia, « St. Anthony's Fire ». Le lien ergot-seigle ne s'est établi que progressivement à l'époque moderne : description de l'ergot au XVIe siècle (Thal, 1596), hypothèse causale au XVIIe (Thuillier, 1630 puis 1672), preuve expérimentale seulement à la fin du XVIIIe (vers 1775-1780).
An important distinction: the epidemics and their names (ignis sacer, burning sickness, St Anthony's fire) are attested by named chroniclers; on the other hand, the systematic identification of every medieval 'holy fire' with rye ergotism is a retrospective reconstruction, several centuries later, that some historians judge partly over-interpreted. The causal link rye-ergot-disease was not conceived in the Middle Ages and is not presented here as a period diagnosis. The World History Encyclopedia page supports the general synthesis, not the precise fact of 1089. Nothing here constitutes medical advice.
Key takeaways
- • Prefers full sun exposure.
- • Ideal soil: poor, acid.
- • Classic companion: Sweet clover (melilot).