An illustration of bread wheat, Triticum aestivum

An illustration and dissection of bread wheat, also called common wheat. The grain is used in some of our favourite foods including bread, cakes and breakfast cereals.

Wheat is one of the world's oldest and most important crops. It has been bred to have higher yields and to be reliant on artificial fertilisers and pesticides.

To continue feeding the world's population on a changing planet, it’s vital that we become less reliant on these chemicals and learn to grow wheat in harsher climates.

The Natural History Museum's historic collections of wheat and its wild relatives are being used to investigate how wheat has changed through time. Scientists hope to identify genes that could help farmers grow strains that are resilient to the conditions the world is experiencing due to climate change.

Scientists are also exploring how adding beneficial fungi to wheat’s roots could allow us to reduce our use of artificial fertilisers, by enhancing the plant’s natural uptake of nutrients.

The illustration by Walther Müller was created for the book Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, or Köhler's Medicinal Plants. It is labelled as Triticum vulgare, but the accepted scientific name for bread wheat is now Triticum aestivum.