Hordeum brachyantherum

Meadow barley

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Meadow barley is a California native perennial grass found in various bioregions across grasslands and meadow habitats. Flowering from May to July, this plant produces green to purple-tinged inflorescences in compact clusters 3 to 10 centimeters long. Growing in loosely to densely tufted clumps 20 to 95 centimeters tall with smooth nodes, it forms distinctive grass clusters with slender stems. Its leaves are narrow, 1.5 to 9 millimeters wide, with blades up to 19 centimeters long that can be smooth or slightly hairy. The plant's central spikelets feature glumes 7 to 19 millimeters long with bristle-like appendages that become straight as they mature.

California counties: Calaveras, Los Angeles, Tuolumne, San Luis Obispo, Kern, Monterey, Napa, Fresno, Plumas, Santa Clara, Alpine, San Mateo, San Bernardino, Tulare, Alameda, Orange, Siskiyou, Mono, Riverside, Ventura, Lake, Santa Barbara, Butte, Contra Costa, Humboldt, Modoc, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Mendocino, Nevada, San Diego, Solano, Trinity, El Dorado, Yolo, Placer, Yuba, Colusa, Santa Cruz, Marin, Sonoma, Inyo, Del Norte, Sierra, Amador, Sacramento, Tehama, Glenn, Shasta

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.