Family |
Poaceae
Hordeum bulbosum
L.
Hordeum bulbosum L.
(Cent. Pl. II: 8; 1756 – Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. CCXL nº 2; 1969)
• Life-form & habit: Perennial grass forming dense tufts 20–60 cm tall, with characteristic swollen basal nodes forming small bulb-like corms. Culms erect or geniculate at the base, slender, glabrous, and hollow.
• Leaves: Blades linear, flat or involute when dry, 5–20 cm long, 2–5 mm wide, smooth or slightly scabrid on the upper surface and margins. Sheaths glabrous; ligule short, membranous, truncate.
• Inflorescence & spikelets: Spikes slender, 4–8 cm long, erect, with each rachis node bearing one central bisexual and two lateral sterile spikelets. Central lemma 8–10 mm, awned; awns 2–3 cm, rough and divergent. Glumes awl-shaped, rigid, nearly equal.
• Fruit: Caryopsis narrowly ellipsoid, smooth, enclosed by the persistent lemma and palea; awns remaining at maturity.
• Phenology: Flowers from March to May; fruits ripen in early summer.
• Habitat & elevation: Dry grassy slopes, steppe margins, and open fields on calcareous or alluvial soils, 200–1 600 m. Common in disturbed and semi-arid habitats.
• Lebanese distribution: Recorded by Mouterde from the Beqaa Valley and lower Mount Lebanon, especially Zahlé, Dahr el-Baïdar, Baalbeck, Barouk, and along the western Beqaa plains.
• Native range: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, East Aegean Islands, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Kriti, Krym, Lebanon–Syria, Libya, Morocco, North Caucasus, NW. Balkan Peninsula, Palestine, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe, Uzbekistan.
• Introduced range: California, France, Germany, Portugal (POWO).
• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: A well-defined species within the Hordeum murinum complex, readily identified by its perennial habit and bulbous stem base. Often confused with H. murinum subsp. leporinum, but that species lacks basal corms and has annual stems. H. bulbosum is of agronomic interest for its chromosome-elimination system used in barley breeding.