Everything about Chaff totally explained
Chaff (or /tʃæf/, both to rhyme with "half") is a term from
agriculture used for the inedible, dry, scaly protective casings of the seeds of
cereal grain. Chaff is a
byproduct of grain production and is often used as
livestock fodder,
ploughed into the
soil, or burnt.
Etymology
From
Middle English chaf, from
Old English ceaf; related to
Old High German cheva meaning husk.
Cereal chaff
In
grasses (including
cereals such as
rice,
barley,
oats and
wheat), the ripe seed is surrounded by thin, dry scales called
glumes,
lemmas and
paleas, forming a dry husk, the chaff. After
harvesting, the grains are separated from the chaff by techniques such as
threshing and
winnowing.
Domesticated types of grain have been bred to have chaff which is easily removed. For example, in wild species of
wheat and in the primitive domesticated
einkorn,
emmer and
spelt wheats, the grains are "hulled" – the husks enclose each seed tightly. Before the grain can be used, the hulls must be removed by further processing such as milling or pounding. In contrast, in free-threshing (or naked) forms such as
durum wheat and
common wheat, the glumes are fragile, and on threshing the chaff easily breaks up, releasing the grains.
Other meanings
Agriculture
Hay or
straw cut into very short lengths is also called chaff. This is done by a machine called a
chaff cutter, thus turning coarse fodder into a form more palatable to livestock.
Botany
In
botany, chaff refers to the thin
receptacular bracts of many species in the sunflower family
Asteraceae. They are modified scale-like
leaves surrounding single
florets in the flower-head.
Metaphor
Chaff is also used to refer to something worthless, such as in the expression "separating the wheat from the chaff", meaning to separate things of value from things of no value. For example Psalm 1 of the
Bible says: "Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away".
Further Information
Get more info on 'Chaff'.
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