Hordeum marinum subsp. gussoneanum

Mediterranean barley, Mediterranean Barley

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Mediterranean barley is a naturalized annual grass found in California (except the southeastern deserts) in dry to moist disturbed sites at elevations below 1,800 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces green to purple inflorescences 1.5 to 7 centimeters long with distinctive bristly spikelets. Growing 10 to 50 centimeters tall with stems that are bent at the base or erect, it has a characteristic growth habit in disturbed landscapes. Its leaf blades reach up to 8 centimeters long and 1 to 6 millimeters wide, with slightly hairy basal sheaths. The plant's central and lateral spikelets fall together, with glumes 10 to 26 millimeters long and conspicuous awns measuring 3 to 18 millimeters.

Habitat: dry to moist, disturbed sites

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: < 1800 m

Bioregions: CA (exc SNE)

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

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