This is the most important of the cultivated oats. Numerous new varieties have been released since that time, while a good many he listed are no longer grown. Included are many varieties of winter and of spring habit. The plants of different varieties differ in vigor and height. All are charcterized by a panicle that is roughly pyramidal in shape with equilateral branches that spread outward.
Many varieties are awnless, and in awned varieties, usually only the first flower is awned.
Lemmas and paleas adhere to the kernel and may be white, gray, yellow or black in color. Shape and size of grains also are highly variable. Basal hairs are few, under the lemma. The species can be distinguished from red oat, A. byzantina , by the fact that spikelets of common oats separate from the pedicel by fracture leaving no basal scar, while in red oats and some other species separation is by abscission - leaving a definite scar. A. sativa L., subsp.