Flora of New Zealand Series

barley grass

Loosely tufted, bluish green annuals, 12-60 cm. Leaf-sheath straw-coloured, sometimes purplish, with auricles hyaline, glabrous, 1-3 mm, uppermost sheaths ± inflated. Ligule 0.4-0.6-(1.4) mm, truncate, denticulate and sparsely ciliate. Leaf-blade 2-12 cm × 1.5-5 mm, soft, flat, ± sparsely long hairy, abaxially scabrid on ribs near acute tip, margins finely scabrid. Culm 7.5-50 cm, erect or geniculate below, internodes glabrous. Racemes erect, very dense-flowered, green to purplish, sometimes dark brown when mature, 5-9.5 × 1.5-3 cm including the erect to somewhat spreading awns; rachis fragile, margins long hairy. Central spikelet ⚥, pedicelled, the pedicel glabrous, polished, c. 1 mm, lateral spikelets ♂ or more often Ø, pedicels shortly pubescent, c. 1 mm. Lateral spikelets: glumes unequal and dissimilar, outer glume 20-24 mm, very narrow, awn-like, scabrid, inner glume 14-18 mm, slightly widened near base and with long (0.75 mm) hairs on margins, narrow, scabrid and awn-like above; lemma 10-12 mm, elliptic-lanceolate, abaxially smooth but with sparse prickle-teeth on nerves above, adaxially densely villous, awn 15-25 mm; palea ≈ lemma, villous, keels scabrid near bifid scabrid tip; rachilla prolongation 1.5-2.5 mm, sturdy, sparsely hairy below, yellow to orange; lodicules 1 mm; anthers 1.5-2 mm, yellowish. Central spikelet: glumes equal, similar, 12-15 mm, widened near base, margins long (0.75 mm) hairy, awn-like and scabrid above; lemma 7-10 mm, elliptic-lanceolate, smooth except for sparse prickle-teeth abaxially on outer lateral nerves just below awn, whitish green, to purplish above, adaxially glabrous except for hairs at apex, awn 13-25 mm; palea ≈ lemma, folded interkeel abaxially sparsely pubescent, nerves scabrid near produced ciliate tip, adaxially smooth but ciliate-scabrid apically; rachilla prolongation 3-5 mm, slender, pale green to dark green, short stiff hairy. Lodicules 1.0 mm, glabrous. Anthers 0.3-0.6 mm. Gynoecium: ovary 0.6-1.0 mm; stigma-styles 0.5-1 mm. Caryopsis 4-6 × 1-2 mm; embryo 0.8 mm.

S.: Canterbury (Amuri basin, Waipara, Yaldhurst, Christchurch), Otago (Waitaki, Taieri and Clutha basins). Pastures and stock camps. FL Sept-Feb.

Naturalised from Mediterranean and south-western Asia.

The correct name in Hordeum is H. glaucum Steud., Syn. Pl. Glum. 1: 352 (1854).