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Hordeum
Hordeum vulgare f. distichon
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Poales Family: Poaceae Genus: Hordeum L.

Hordeum is a genus of about 30 species of annual and perennial grasses, native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere, temperate South America, and also South Africa.

One species, H. vulgare (barley), is of major commercial importance as a cereal grain, used as fodder crop and for malting in beer and whiskey production. Some species are nuisance weeds introduced world-wide by human activities others endangered due to habitat loss.

Hordeum species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including The Flame, Rustic Shoulder-knot and Setaceous Hebrew Character.

The genus Hordeum comprises currently 31 species:

• Hordeum arizonicum
• Hordeum bogdanii
• Hordeum brachyantherum
  • with the subspecies (subsp.) brachyantherum and californicum
• Hordeum brevisubulatum
  • subsp. brevisubulatum, iranicum, nevskianum, turkestanicum, and violaceum
• Hordeum bulbosum
• Hordeum capense
• Hordeum chilense
• Hordeum comosum
• Hordeum cordobense
• Hordeum depressum
• Hordeum erectifolium
• Hordeum euclaston
• Hordeum flexuosum
• Hordeum fuegianum
• Hordeum guatemalense
• Hordeum gussoneanum (sea barley)
• Hordeum intercedens
• Hordeum jubatum (foxtail barley)
• Hordeum lechleri
• Hordeum marinum (sea barley)
• Hordeum murinum (wall barley)
  • subsp. murinum, glaucum, and leporinum
• Hordeum muticum
• Hordeum patagonicum
  • subsp. patagonicum, magellanicum, mustersi, santacrucense, and setifolium
• Hordeum parodii
• Hordeum procerum
• Hordeum pubiflorum
  • subsp. pubiflorum and halophilum
• Hordeum pusillum
• Hordeum roshevitzii
• Hordeum secalinum
• Hordeum stenostachys
• Hordeum tetraploidum
• Hordeum vulgare (barley)
  • barley (Hordeum vulgare subsp. vulgare)
    • two-rowed barley (Hordeum vulgare f. distichon)
    • six-rowed barley (Hordeum vulgare f. hexastichon, Hordeum vulgare f. agriochriton)
  • wild barley (Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum)

Bothmer, Jacobsen, Baden, Jorgensen, Linde-Laursen (1995): An ecogeographical study of the genus Hordeum, 2nd ed. IPGRI, Rome.

Blattner (2004): Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33, 289-299.

Blattner (2006): New Phytologist 169, 603-614.

Jakob & Blattner (2007): Molecular Ecology, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2007.03228.x.