Hordeum vulgare L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Hordeum vulgare L.

• Description

  Species Description - Glabrous annual 6–12 dm; lvs 5–12+ mm wide, with well developed auricles to 6 mm; spikes stout, 6–9(–12) cm (excl. awns), the rachis remaining intact; all 3 spikelets of a triad sessile and fertile (6-rowed barley), or the lateral pair sterile (2-rowed barley); glumes subequal, 6.5–20 mm, linear, broadened below, 3-veined, ascending-pilose, tapering into slender, scabrous awns; fertile lemmas 6.5–12 mm, 5-nerved, tapering into long, stout, flattened, scabrous-margined awns 6–16 cm, or (pearl-barley) awnless and 3-lobed at the tip; anthers 2–2.5 mm; 2n=14, 28. A European cultigen, occasionally found as a waif along roads and railways in our range. (H. distichon L., two-rowed barley)

• Common Names

  barley