Barley

A hardy group of staple cereals (genus Hordeum), cultivated in all parts of the world and since at least 7000 BC in the Near East, at least as early as wheat. The two-row barley, Hordeum distichum, was derived from the wild H. spontaneum, distributed from the Aegean to the Hindu Kush. It is recorded from Jarmo, and spread as far as Neolithic Switzerland before being replaced by the second group. Six-row barleys, H. hexastichum, arose from H. distichum in cultivation. Its distribution extended from China to Egypt and Switzerland, and it is still occasionally grown. Modern barleys are all H. tetrastichum, a development from hexastichum recorded as early as the Neolithic in Britain and Denmark. All the domestic barleys are closely related and their nomenclature is jumbled. Barley is used as food (in the US and Great Britain) and in the preparation of malt liquors and spirits.

A group of cereals, members of the genus Hordeum. Wild two-row barley (//. spontaneum) occurs today in a similar area of the Near East to the wheats. This species seems to be the ancestor of all domestic forms of H. spontaneum appears in the early Neolithic of the Near East by 7000 be, as early as the wheats, but domesticated two-row barley does not appear until slightly later in the Neolithic. Six-row barleys, with six vertical rows of grains up the ear, appeared as a result of domestication at about the same time. Barley spread into Asia and Europe mainly in the six-row form. All the domestic barleys are closely related and their nomenclature is in some disarray. Some authors include them all in one species, under the heading H. vulgare sensu lato, or another name, H. sativum. Two-row barleys are sometimes distinguished as H. distichum or distichon. Six-row barleys are variously called H. polystichum, H. hexastichum or, confusingly, H. vulgare sensu strictu. Both two-row and six-row forms have varieties that thresh free from the chaff (naked barleys) and that do not (hulled barleys).