Hordeum murinum ssp. gussoneanum  (Parl.) Thell.   =Hordeum geniculatum   Poaceae   (Grass Family)                                                                                                                                              Europe   Mediterranean Barley

                                             May Photo

Plant Characteristics: Annual, the culms spreading at base, 1.5-4 dm. long; sheaths and blades +/-  pubescent; spike erect, ovate to ovate-oblong, 1.5-3 cm. long, the rachis usually not breaking easily; glumes setaceous, rigid, ca. 12 mm. long; lemma of cent. spikelet 3-12  mm. long, with a somewhat longer awn than the glumes; fls. of lateral spikelets reduced, short awned; awns and glumes strongly spreading at maturity; bases of glumes of lateral spikelets prominent above the pedicel.  The key to Hordeum in the 1993 Jepson manual states that the glumes are straight with age, not spreading as above.  (Hickman, Ed. 1264).

Habitat:  Alkaline or waste places, at scattered locations at low elevs.; to B.C., Atlantic Coast; Channel Ids.; native of Europe.  Blooms April-June.

Name:  Latin, hordeum, ancient name for barley.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 976).  Latin, genu, dim. geniculum, having a knot or protuberance like a knee or elbow.  (Jaeger 109).  Geniculatum, probably refers to the angle in the stem at each node.  (my comment).  Gussoneanum, possibly named for Giovanni Gussone, 1787-1866 Naples, Italy.  (Bailey 44).  Latin, marinus, of the sea.  (Jaeger 150).  John Johnson suggests that the plant was first found along the Mediterranean Sea.

General:  Uncommon in the study area having only been found at 23rd St. where there is an area there of about 10 x 15 feet that is mostly this species. (my comments 1993).      Through the years, salt grass and other marsh plants have replaced this species and only a few plants are evident now.  (my comments 2003).       Another colony was found in 2003 at the bluff top of the second draw southerly of the Interpretive Center. (my comments).      In 2005 a third colony was found in a low moist spot near the parking lot for the Interpretive Center.  (my comments).     See H. depressum, H. murinum ssp. leporinum, and H. vulgare. for notes on the genus Hordeum.     

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 1266; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 977.

Photo Ref:  April 2 93 # 16A,17A.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by John Johnson.

First Found:  April 1993.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 444.

Plant specimen donated to UC Riverside in 2004.

Last edit 8/7/05.                          

                                               April Photo