GrassBase - The Online World Grass Flora

Descriptions

W.D. Clayton, M. Vorontsova, K.T. Harman & H. Williamson

© Copyright The Board of Trustees, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Hordeum bulbosum

HABIT Perennial; caespitose. Culms 50–100 cm long; swollen at the base. Culm-internodes glaucous. Leaf-sheath oral hairs lacking. Leaf-sheath auricles falcate. Ligule an eciliate membrane. Leaf-blades 10–20 cm long; 3–7 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface scabrous; glabrous, or pilose; hairy adaxially.

INFLORESCENCE Inflorescence composed of racemes.

Racemes 1; single; linear; bilateral; 6–13 cm long; 6–10 mm wide. Rhachis fragile at the nodes; flattened; ciliate on margins. Spikelet packing broadside to rhachis. Rhachis internodes oblong; 3 mm long; falling with spikelet above.

Spikelets in threes. Fertile spikelets sessile; 1 in the cluster. Companion sterile spikelets pedicelled; 2 in the cluster. Pedicels oblong.

STERILE SPIKELETS Companion sterile spikelets well-developed; male; lanceolate; dorsally compressed; 13–25 mm long; shorter than fertile; deciduous with the fertile. Companion sterile spikelet glumes subulate. Companion sterile spikelet lemmas 1; 10 mm long; muticous.

FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 1 fertile florets; with a barren rhachilla extension. Spikelets lanceolate; dorsally compressed; 8–11 mm long; falling entire; deciduous with accessory branch structures.

GLUMES Glumes collateral; similar. Lower glume lanceolate; 5–8 mm long; 1 length of upper glume. Lower glume margins eciliate, or ciliate. Lower glume apex awned; 1 -awned. Lower glume awn 10–18 mm long. Upper glume lanceolate; 5–8 mm long. Upper glume margins eciliate, or ciliate. Upper glume awned; 1 -awned. Upper glume awn 10–18 mm long.

FLORETS Fertile lemma lanceolate; 8–11 mm long; coriaceous; without keel; 5 -veined. Lemma apex acuminate; awned; 1 -awned. Principal lemma awn 20–35 mm long overall; limb scabrous.

FLOWER Anthers 3. Ovary pubescent on apex.

FRUIT Caryopsis with adherent pericarp; sulcate on hilar side; hairy at apex. Hilum linear.

DISTRIBUTION Europe: southwestern, southeastern, and eastern. Africa: north. Asia-temperate: Soviet Middle Asia, Caucasus, and western Asia. South America: southern South America.

NOTES Triticeae. Fl Turk 1993.

Please cite this publication as detailed in How to Cite Version: 3rd February 2016.