Wall Barley - Hordeum murinum

Description

20 to 60 cm tall. Leaves light green, flat and hairy with inflated sheaths. Bristly flower spikes may reach up to 10 cm in length, though often shorter.

Similar Species

Meadow Barley (Hordeum secalinum) and other Hordeum, including some rarely recorded alien species. 

Identification difficulty
ID guidance

Annual (unlike Meadow Barley, which is perennial and has tillers at flowering).  May be present in bare-ish patches in older grasslands, as well as waste places, roadsides, around lamp-posts and bins, etc.

Habitat

Roadsides and waste ground.

When to see it

June to July.

Life History

Annual.

UK Status

Fairly common in the southern half of Britain at least.

VC55 Status

Fairly common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 367 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Wall Barley
Species group:
Grasses, Rushes & Sedges
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Poales
Family:
Poaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
123
First record:
31/05/2008 (Calow, Graham)
Last record:
01/11/2023 (McLoughlin, Margaret)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

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