Plant · P-699

Little Barley

Hordeum pusillum

Little Barley is a winter annual grass whose short life closes out before summer heat arrives, germinating in autumn, growing through the cool months and setting seed by early summer. Native peoples of eastern North America harvested its starchy grain thousands of years ago, though the tough hull makes threshing the real obstacle to using it today. Its stiff awns injure the mouths and eyes of grazing animals, so most of its modern range treats it as a rangeland and wheat-field weed rather than a forage crop.