Hordeum vulgare L. subsp. vulgare
four- and six-rowed barley
Tufts 50-120 cm. Culm 45-110 cm. Raceme 5-9 × 1-1.5 cm, lax- or dense-flowered, in section square (4-rowed barley), or hexagonal (6-rowed barley). Spikelets all sessile, ⚥. Lemma 9-12 mm; awn 9-17 cm. Caryopsis 8-10 × 2-3.5 mm.
N.; S.: occasional. An escape from cultivation; on roadsides or on waste land.
Cosmopolitan crop of temperate regions.
Cultivars with short pyramidal spikes 4-6 × c. 2.5 cm and spreading awns may also be found growing wild, e.g., CHR 92133 A. J. Healy 56/190 near Rolleston, waste land, railway reserve, 29.10.1956; such cultivars belong to subgroup Zeocriton.
