Hordeum pusillum

Hordeum pusillum, the little barley, is an annual grass native to the United States (except the westernmost parts).[1][2] It arrived via multiple long-distance dispersals of a southern South American species of Hordeum about one million years ago.[3] Its closest relatives are therefore not the other North American taxa like meadow barley (Hordeum brachyantherum) or foxtail barley (also known as squirreltail grass, H. jubatum), but rather Hordeum species of the pampas of central Argentina and Uruguay. It is less closely related to the Old World domesticated barley, from which it diverged about 12 million years ago. It is diploid.[4]

Hordeum pusillum
Growing in a disturbed area
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Pooideae
Genus: Hordeum
Species:
H. pusillum
Binomial name
Hordeum pusillum
Nutt. (1818)

Uses

The tiny seeds are edible, and this plant was part of the Eastern Agricultural Complex of cultivated plants used in Pre-Columbian times by Native Americans. Before being displaced by maize agriculture, little barley may have been domesticated. Today it can be found in grassland, Sonoran desert, at the edges of marshes, as well as ruderal habitats like roadsides.[1][5]

References
  1. National Plant Data Center (2010). "PLANTS Profile: Hordeum pusillum Nutt. – little barley". The PLANTS Database. Baton Rouge, LA: USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
  2. "BSBI List 2007". Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-01-25. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  3. Blattner, F. R. (2006). "Multiple Intercontinental Dispersals Shaped the Distribution area of Hordeum (Poaceae)". New Phytologist. 169 (3): 603–614. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.2005.01610.x. PMID 16411962.
  4. Pleines, T.; Blattner, F. R. (2008). "Phylogeographic Implications of an AFLP Phylogeny of the American Diploid Hordeum Species (Poaceae: Triticeae)". Taxon. 57 (3): 875–881. doi:10.1002/tax.573016.
  5. Hilty, John (January 28, 2010). "Little Barley". Illinois Wildflowers. Urbana, IL. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
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