Hordeum distichon L.

Nile and Mediterranean regions, Egyptian desert, and Sinai.

Cultivated throughout temperate regions of the world.

Cultivated cereal (Barley) often escaping into the wild.

Annual.

Plants annual. Culms erect, 60–80 cm tall, 5- or 6-noded, smooth, glabrous. Leaf sheath usually shorter than internode; ligule membranous; auricles present, surrounding culm; leaf blade 15–20 × 0.6–0.7 cm. Spike erect, distichous, 10–20 × 0.7–0.8 cm; rachis flexible, margin pubescent. Lateral spikelets: pedicellate, sterile; pedicel ca. 2 mm; glumes ca. 5 × 0.5 mm, awn slender, ca. 5 mm; lemma ca. 8 mm. Central spikelet: fertile; glumes ca. 5 mm, awn slender, ca. 5 mm; lemma ca. 10 mm, awn to 15 cm; caryopsis adherent to or free from lemma and palea. Fl. and fr. Jul–Aug.

Two-rowed barley. Only the central spikelet of each triad is fertile so that there are 2 longitudinal rows of fertile spikelets in each spike. It is cultivated in Sind, Baluchistan, N.W.F.P. and the Punjab. It can, apparently, ripen in only 3 months so a second crop is often sown in each year.

Cultivated as a fodder plant, or a weed in fields of Hordeum vul-gare. Anhui, Fujian, Hebei, Henan, Qinghai, Xizang; perhaps other provinces [widely cultivated in temperate regions].

Hordeum distichon, the common barley or two-rowed barley, is a cultigen of barley, family Poaceae. It is native to Iraq, and is widely grown throughout temperate regions of the world. Some authorities consider it a subspecies of six-rowed barley, Hordeum vulgare. It is the principal raw material for malting and brewing beer in Europe, as it is lower in protein than the six-rowed barley usually used in North America.