Oats (Avena; Ukrainian: oves). A cereal of the family Gramineae, which includes A. euavena, an annual species, and A. avenastrum, a perennial steppe and meadow grass. The plants have a fibrous root system, linear leaves, and a one-seeded fruit. Oats may be a spring or a winter crop. Perennial oats is used as fodder; annual oats includes the cultivated oat plant (A. sativa). Although oats is used chiefly as livestock feed, some is processed for human consumption (oatmeal). Oats is a source of calcium, iron, vitamin B, and nicotinic acid, and in Ukraine they are a basic grain food. Owing to the use of more productive feed plants in recent decades (corn, peas, sugar beets), acreage planted with oats has gradually been diminishing in Ukraine.


Encyclopedia of Ukraine