E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Perennial, tufted grass from fibrous roots, smooth to densely soft-hairy; stems 20-50 (60) cm tall.

Leaves:
Sheaths open; blades 2-4 (5) mm wide, sparsely hairy just above the ligules; ear-shaped lobes usually present on at least some leaf-bases, barely 0.5 mm long; ligules 0.2-0.6 mm long, blunt, more or less entire.

Flowers:
Inflorescence a spike, 5-10 cm long (including awns) and almost as wide at maturity, the rachis disarticulating; central spikelets unstalked, the lateral ones short-stalked, the stalks curved, stiff-hairy, about 1-1.5 mm long; central spikelet glumes awnlike, (11) 20-90 mm long, the awns of the lateral spikelet glumes often as long as those of the central spikelets; central spikelet lemmas with awns nearly as long as the glumes, ultimately usually more or less broadly spreading, the lateral spikelet florets sterile, rudimentary to nearly as large as those of the central spikelets, then with functional anthers; anthers 1-1.5 mm long.

Notes:
Hordeum jubatum hybridizes with several species in other genera of the Triticeae as well as with H. brachyantherum. These latter hybrids, which tend to resemble H. jubatum more than H. brachyantherum, are called H. jubatum ssp. intermedium (Barkworth 1994). The two subspecies occurring in BC may be recognized as follows:

1. Glumes 33-90 mm long; lemma awns of the central florets 33-90 mm long......................... ssp. Jubatum

1. Glumes 11-36 mm long; lemma awns of the central florets 7-36 mm long......................ssp. intermedium Bowden