Seed head. Photo: N Sloth, Arhus, Denmark

Plant. Photo: Julio Reis, Portugal

Plants. Photo: Daderot, Oslo, Norway

Ligule and junction of leaf blade and sheath. Photo: Zoya Akulova, California, USA

Common Name

Sea Barley, Sea Barley Grass

Family

Poaceae

Notes

Introduced annual grass 10-40cm tall.  Leaves with a hairless to hairy sheath at the base.  Ligule a membrane without a fringe of hairs.  Leaves 1.5-8cm long, 1-4mm wide, flat, hairy, with smooth edges and a straight point.  Spikelets green, 4-11mm long excluding the awns.  Mature seed groups cylindrical.  Seeds with one awn, in threes.

Differs from Hordeum leporinum and Hordeum glaucum  in that the junction of the leaf sheath and blade has no lobes.

Short description and line drawing of spikelet (Fig. 22b) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 111

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Hordeum~marinum

ausgrass2 description with line drawing:   http://ausgrass2.myspecies.info/content/hordeum-marinum