Scientific Name
Hordeum jubatum L.
Common Name(s)
Foxtail barley
Tribe / Family Name
Triticeae
Flowering Period
June to August
Symbol
HOJU
Description
Foxtail barley is a native cool-season perennial bunchgrass that reproduces from seeds and tillers. Culms range from 20–80 cm in height. Its inflorescence is usually a nodding, terminal spike 3–15 cm long, occasionally partially enclosed in a subtending sheath, bristly with whitish green to light purplish feathery or silken awns, and shattering at maturity. Spikelets are 3 per rachis node and 1-flowered: the central spikelets are sessile and fertile; the lateral spikelets borne on curved pedicels and either staminate or sterile; spikelets awned: the lemmas of the central spikelet awned (awns 11–90 mm long and straight to ascending); the lemmas of the lateral spikelets awned (awns up to 15 mm long and divergent). Ligules are up to 0.8 mm long, membranous, truncate, entire or erose, ciliolate, and glabrous.
General Info
Foxtail barley can be found along roadsides, ditches, shores, shallow marshes, seepage areas, and trails, in open disturbed dry areas, sagebrush deserts, meadows, alkaline and saline sites, foothills, plains, and montane sites.
Similar Species
Foxtail barley can look very similar to bottlebrush squirreltail (Elymus elymoides). To distinguish these two species from each other, look for the nodding seed heads with straight feathery awns of foxtail barley, and erect seed heads with stiff, scabrous, and widely spreading awns of bottlebrush squirreltail. Also, foxtail barley does not have auricles.
Picture of growth habit.
Close-up picture of spike inflorescence.
Close-up illustration of spikelet. Glen Cole, 2017.
Close-up picture of fertile central spikelet (center), lateral sterile spikelets (left, right), and glumes.
Close-up picture of membranous ligule.
Illustration of foxtail barley. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / USDA NRCS. <i>Wetland flora: Field office illustrated guide to plant species</i>. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.