Vavilovian mimicry

The process has operated since Neolithic times, creating secondary crops such as rye and oats through mimicry of cereals such as wheat.

[1][2] Evolutionary biologists describe mimicry in terms of three roles for the species involved: mimic, model, and dupe.

Finally, in the case of secondary crops, it can be considered mutualistic, as both the rye, and the farmer who grows and eats it, benefit from the process.

Weeds such as rye were selected against by killing young or adult plants, separating its seeds from those of the crop (winnowing), or both.

At the end of each growing season wheat produces seeds, while wild rye does not, and is thus destroyed when the post-harvest soil is tilled.

Having become preadapted as a crop through wheat mimicry, rye was then positioned to become a cultivated plant in areas where soil and climatic conditions favored its production, such as mountainous terrain.

Once again paralleling wheat, rye and other cereals, oats have developed tough spindles which prevent seeds from easily dropping off, while other characteristics which help in natural dispersal have become vestigial, including the awns which allow them to self bury.

[7][10] The flax-dodder (Cuscuta epilinum) is a parasitic creeper that grows around flax (linseed) plants, harming the crop.