Culms to 160 cm, decumbent at the base; nodes pubescent; internodes mostly hollow, solid for 1 cm below the spike. Blades 5-15 mm wide, blue-green, hirsute, with long hairs over the veins, shorter hairs between the veins, hairs stiff. Spikes 5-14 cm, wider than thick; rachises densely ciliate at the nodes and margins; internodes 3-5 mm; disarticulation spontaneous, dispersal units wedge-shaped. Spikelets 12-17 mm, rectangular, with 2-3 florets, 1-2 seed-forming. Glumes 6-11 mm, coriaceous, tightly appressed to the lower florets, 2-keeled, with 2 prominent teeth; lemmas 10-14 mm, first (and sometimes the second) lemma awned, awns to 11 cm, third lemma usually unawned; paleas splitting at maturity; anthers 3-6 mm. Caryopses of the lowest floret in each spikelet usually blue, that of the second amber or red with blue mottling; endosperm flinty. Haplome Ab. 2n = 14.

Triticum boeoticum is a wild diploid wheat that is native from the Balkans through the Caucasus to Iran and Afghanistan, and south to Iraq. It is morphologically similar to and, in its native range, sometimes sympatric with T. urartu, another wild diploid wheat. Triticum monococcum-is the domesticated derivative of T. boeoticum.

Boissier published the combination for this species both as -Triticum baeoticum- and -T. boeoticum-. Because the type specimen is from Boeotia [Greece], -boeoticum- is the correct spelling of the epithet.