Grains of domesticated grasses (Poaceae) have long been a global food source and constitute the bulk of calories in the human diet. While most contemporary grass domesticates consumed by humans are annual plants, there are over 7000 perennial grass species that remain largely unexplored for domestication purposes. Documenting ethnobotanical uses of wild perennial grasses could aid in the evaluation of candidate species for de novo crop development. In this study, we 1) provide an ethnobotanical survey of the perennial grass genus Elymus; and 2) investigate floret size variation in Elymus species used by people. We identified at least 21 taxa with recorded nutritional, medicinal, and/or material uses and at least 25 different indigenous communities associated with a use. The most common ethnobotanical use of Elymus in this survey is as forage, though at least 12 species are consumed by humans. Elymus species used for food warrant pre-breeding and future analyses to assess potential utility in perennial agricultural systems. We found average floret area does not differ significantly across geographic regions and among documented ethnobotanical uses, with the exception of species used for medicine in North America. A variety of Elymus species show promise for continued human use, and standing morphological variation in the genus should be further explored.

长期以来，驯化草（禾本科）的谷物一直是全球食物来源，占人类饮食中卡路里的大部分。尽管人类消耗的大多数当代草驯养物都是一年生植物，但仍有超过7,000种多年生草种尚未完全用于驯化目的。记录野生多年生草的民族植物学用途可以帮助评估从头作物发展的候选物种。在这项研究中，我们1）提供了多年生草属披碱草属的植物学调查；和2）调查披碱草的小花大小变化人们使用的物种。我们确定了至少21个具有记录的营养，药物和/或物质用途的分类单元，以及至少25个与用途相关的不同土著社区。尽管人类至少食用了12种物种，但在该调查中，最常见的民族披碱草用途是草食。用于食品的披碱草属物种需要进行预育和未来分析，以评估多年生农业系统中的潜在效用。我们发现，除北美用于药用的物种外，不同地理区域和有记录的民族植物学用途之间的平均小花面积没有显着差异。各种披碱草 该物种显示出可继续供人类使用的前景，并且该属的站立形态变异应进一步探索。