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Sea Barley-grass photos | Family: Grass (Poaceae syn. Gramineae) |
Scientific Name: | Hordeum marinum (syn. Critesion marinum) | Population with maturing flower spikes | |||||
Status: | Native to coastal western and southern Europe. Naturalised in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. | ||||||
Plant Description: | Tufted annual grass with erect to spreading, smooth to softly hairy (hairs to 0.3 mm long) stems to 50 cm long and velvety-hairy, flat, leaves 4-15 cm long and 1.5-4 mm wide; ligule membranous, 0.5 mm long. Inflorescence, a compact, much bristled, semi-flattened spike, 1.5-5 cm long, containing spikelets in groups of three. Each spikelet is composed of a single, central and awned floret and two bristles. A number of species have a similar inflorescence appearance (see notes on spikelet differences). | ||||||
Habitat: | A colonizer of disturbed low-lying situations associated with pasture plants and some native communities. Widespread in saline areas.
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Comments: | Similar to the saline land colonizer, Mediterranean Barley-grass (H. hystrix) and the non-saline land colonizer, Barley-grass (H. murinum). |
Sea Barley-grass - flower spike Photo: A J Brown | Sea Barley-grass - old flower spike Photo: A J Brown |
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