Barley (Hordeum)

By Bruce Homer-Smith

In addition to cultivated barley, we have several wild species of Hordeum - both annuals and perennial bunch grasses. Barley is in the Wheat Tribe.

· Inflorescences are dense spikes of overlapping spikelets with awns.

· Spikelets connect in triplets at alternating sides of the stem. The center one is fertile and awned. Two lateral spikelets are infertile or just male, and reduced.

· Glumes are awn-like, and tend to be longer than the single floret.

Many spikelets form a spike:

Alkalai Barley (Hordeum depressum)

Photo by Steve Matson

A spikelet triplet:

Foxtail Barley (Hordeum murinum)

Photo by Steve Matson

The overall effect is a chain of fat spikelets with lots of awns.

Here are some examples:

Meadow Barley

(Hordeum brachyantherum)
Photo by Wilde Legard

Mediterranean Barley

(Hordeum marinum ssp. gussoneanum)

Photo by Keir Morse

Foxtail or Squirreltail Barley

(Hordeum jubatum ssp. jubatum)

Photo by Wilde Legard

Mediterranean Barley

(Hordeum marinum ssp. gussoneanum)

Photo by Wilde Legard

California has 8 species of Hordeum, which comes from the Latin word “to bristle”. Indeed, this is a bristly grass, with awned florets and awn-like glumes. Spikelets break off easily at maturity.

The one exception is cultivated barley, which has been bred to remove awns and hair, make infertile lateral spikelets fertile, make grains larger, and make the whole spikelet more robust for easier harvesting.

H. vulgare	Barley	Domesticated
H. murinum	Farmer’s Foxtail	Not native annual
H. jubatum	Squirrel/Fox Tail Barley	Native bunch grass
H. brachyantherum	Meadow Barley	Native bunch grass
H. marinum	Mediterranean Barley	Not native annual
H. depressum	Alkali Barley	Native annual
H. intercedens	Vernal Barley	Native annual, rare
H. arizonicum	Arizona Foxtail	Native annual, uncommon

Corrections/Comments: bruce@PlantID.net