Senatore Cappelli or Cappelli is an autumn durum wheat cultivar obtained by the geneticist Nazareno Strampelli - at the beginning of the twentieth century at the Research Center for Cereal Growing in Foggia - by genealogical selection of the North African population "Jenah Rhetifah".
Released in 1915, the new variety of wheat was dedicated to the Abruzzese Marquis Raffaele Cappelli, senator of the Kingdom of Italy, who, in the last years of the nineteenth century, together with his brother Antonio, had initiated agricultural transformations in Puglia and supported Strampelli in the his activity, making experimental fields, laboratories and other resources available to him. The Cappelli wheat, despite being tall (about 150-160 cm), late and susceptible to rust and lodging, had great success thanks to its wide adaptability, its rusticity and the excellent quality of its semolina. Cappelli is still cultivated after almost a century, particularly in southern Italy (Basilicata, Calabria, Puglia, Sardinia), for the production of superior quality pasta and organic bread and pizza, a niche for which a interesting market.
The modest sowing density, the limited fertility of the soil and the low consumption of fertilizers contributed for a long time to alleviate the problem of lodging associated with the high stature of this cultivar. After the Second World War, the possibility of producing low-cost nitrogen fertilizers stimulated the creation of varieties capable of enhancing the administration of increasing quantities of nitrogen. Furthermore, the increased availability of herbicides has made it possible to obviate the lower competitiveness of low plants towards weeds. In the following years (from 1950 to 1960), the genetic improvement was therefore mainly oriented to the reduction of the size and the increase of the earliness, with attention to the qualitative characteristics of the grain.
It marked the beginning of the decline of Cappelli, after decades of uncontested dominion.
In recent years it has been rediscovered, especially with organic farming practices, for its high nutritional properties.

​