The oat (Avena sativa), sometimes called the common oat, is a species of cereal grain grown for its seed. The wild ancestor of Avena sativa and the closely related minor crop – A. byzantina – is A. sterilis. A. sterilis is a wild oat that is naturally hexaploid. Genetic evidence shows the ancestral forms of A. sterilis grew in the Fertile Crescent of the Near East. Oats are usually thought to have emerged as a secondary crop, i.e., derived from a weed of the primary cereal domesticates, then spreading westward into cooler, wetter areas favorable for oats, eventually leading to their domestication in regions of the Middle East and Europe.

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