It can be distinguished by its more compact ear due to shorter rachis segments, giving it its common name.

Due to the process of selective breeding T. compactum has fewer HMW-glutenin genes than other species of wheat.

[2] The oldest primitive forms of T. compactum appear to have first arisen, along with similar wheats, in neolithic Syria.

[5] T. compactum appears in Europe for the first time during the Neolithic Era reaching as far as Spain by 4600 BC.

[12] As production of American wheat drastically increased during the early twentieth century[13] T. aestivum rose in popularity surpassing T. compactum.

[8] In T. compactum, like other bread and club wheats, there is a keel on the upper section of the otherwise flat glume.

[15] In the northern hemisphere Triticum compactum generally flowers during the months of June and July with its seeds ripening in August and September.

Triticum compactum is an annual plant growing to heights of approximately 0.6 meters in the summer and dying in the winter.