Template:Taxobox begin Template:Taxobox image Template:Taxobox begin placement Template:Taxobox regnum entry Template:Taxobox divisio entry Template:Taxobox classis entry Template:Taxobox ordo entry Template:Taxobox familia entry Template:Taxobox genus entry Template:Taxobox species entry Template:Taxobox end placement Template:Taxobox section binomial botany

Template:Taxobox end Rye (Secale cereale) is a grass grown extensively as a grain and forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used to make flour, feed, some whiskeys and most vodkas. Rye, alone or overseeded, is planted as a livestock forage or harvested for hay. It is highly tolerant of soil acidity and is more tolerant of dry and cool conditions than wheat, though not as tolerant of cold as barley. The first possible use of domestic rye comes from the site of Tell Abu Hureyra in northern Syria, in the Euphrates Valley, dating to late Epi-Palaeolithic.

Rye was not one of the main cereals of Classical Antiquity. Probably it was only an accidental plant occurring in small numbers in most wheat fields. Since the middle ages, it is widely cultivated in Central and Eastern Europe and is the main bread cereal in most areas east of the French-German border and north of Hungary.

Rye straw is prized in Corn dolly making.

Rye Extract is often used as a medicine.rye

Rye is used to make rye whiskey.

• Gordon Hillmann: New evidence of Lateglacial cereal cultivation at Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates, in: The Holocene 11/4 (July 2001), p. 383-393.