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Hordeum vulgare; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-07-20

Hordeum vulgare L.

Barley; Six-rowed barley; Common barley; Cereal barley

Poaceae · Greece, Kriti +24

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Hordeum vulgare, photograph (c) spacegecko, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hordeum vulgare, photograph (c) spacegecko, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hordeum vulgare, photograph (c) spacegecko, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hordeum vulgare, photograph (c) spacegecko, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hordeum vulgare, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedHordeum vulgare, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 89 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-14.1°C
Record low -22.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
270mm
4 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–48DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes March to August, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 6 records in 4 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Barley (Hordeum vulgare), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. One of the first cultivated grains, it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikelets and making it much easier to harvest. Its use then spread throughout Eurasia by 2000 BC. Barley prefers relatively low temperatures and well-drained soil to grow. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Barley", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (206 mm of 275 mm) falls in March to August, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.8 °C against a yearly mean of 14.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to February.

Rain

275 mm in the median year at the habitat, 206 mm of it March to August. Wettest month July at 54 mm, driest month December at 6 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 223 mm to 693 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 270 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 275 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 48 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -14.1 °C, the absolute minimum -22.6 °C, 9,460 frost nights in 44 years, 215.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -4.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -19.5 °C to 7.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.4 °C in June (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -14.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 49 to 55% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -53 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 6 records in 4 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Hordeum vulgare through the yearWarmest month June, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -4.3 °C; 275 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°60°frost22.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-22.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 23–48RH 49–55%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 4 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C9 / -11–2012 / -8–2316 / -3–2821 / 1–3526 / 6–4027 / 10–4126 / 15–3826 / 15–3724 / 11–3721 / 2–3315 / -5–2810 / -10–22
Night °C-4 / -20–7-1 / -17–103 / -13–158 / -10–2013 / -5–2517 / -1–2918 / 4–3017 / 5–2915 / -1–279 / -10–202 / -16–14-4 / -18–9
Rain mm9 / 6–1514 / 11–2222 / 16–2834 / 15–6426 / 12–8423 / 20–13654 / 30–11447 / 36–10421 / 20–10112 / 6–437 / 3–116 / 5–12
DLI26 / 25–2832 / 30–3439 / 37–4245 / 44–5048 / 45–5346 / 40–5139 / 37–4637 / 35–4336 / 33–4033 / 31–3427 / 27–2823 / 23–25
RH %55 / 54–6352 / 52–6351 / 50–6249 / 43–6250 / 41–6253 / 46–6254 / 53–6054 / 53–6053 / 51–6154 / 48–6154 / 51–6255 / 53–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 6 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1195:5630 (30.225, 101.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -22.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -14.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 4 distinct grid cells holding 6 of the 6 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1195:5630 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 30.00_101.250, lapse-corrected -53 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3877 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeGreece, Kriti, Turkey-in-Europe, Egypt, Libya, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Qinghai, Tibet, Pakistan · introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Chad, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Altay, Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Magadan, Primorye, Sakhalin, North Caucasus, Gulf States, Kuwait, Oman, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Vietnam, Jawa, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Fiji, New Caledonia, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Windward Is., Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Uruguay, Kerguelen · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker36.01, 72.01 · in the densest population, 53 records (20% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 266 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 6 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 254 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3626 km away. 1322 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 260 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 266 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Hordeum vulgare, photograph 1did not loadHordeum vulgare, photograph 2did not loadHordeum vulgare, photograph 3did not loadHordeum vulgare, photograph 4did not loadHordeum vulgare, photograph 5did not loadHordeum vulgare, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) spacegecko, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Glandularia wrightii Verbenaceae Oenothera organensis Oenothera organensis Onagraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHesperostipa neomexicana Hesperostipa neomexicana New Mexico Feathergrass Photo: CC BY, Parker James LloydCirsium ochrocentrum Cirsium ochrocentrum Yellow-spine thistle Photo: CC0, author not statedNolina greenei Nolina greenei Woodland Beargrass Photo: CC BY, William HarmonSalvia reflexa Salvia reflexa Mintweed Photo: CC BY, Bob

Other Hordeum 8 in the reference

Hordeum brachyantherum Hordeum brachyantherum Meadow barley Photo: CC BY, Abby HydeHordeum brevisubulatum Hordeum brevisubulatum Poaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHordeum bulbosum Hordeum bulbosum Bulbous barley Photo: CC0, author not statedHordeum jubatum Hordeum jubatum Foxtail barley Photo: CC BY, Johnathan CampbellHordeum marinum Hordeum marinum Sea barley Photo: CC BY, Jorge ÍñiguezHordeum murinum Hordeum murinum Wall barley Photo: CC BY, Vasco Henrique Oliveira FonsecaHordeum pusillum Hordeum pusillum Little barley Photo: CC0, author not statedHordeum secalinum Hordeum secalinum Meadow barley Photo: CC BY-SA, Victor Heng

Names & registers

Also known as Frumentum hordeum; Frumentum sativum; Hordeum aestivum; Hordeum americanum; Hordeum barbaricum and 193 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Greece, Kriti, Turkey-in-Europe +23
Wild records
266 in range · 254 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 19 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 6 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 30.00_101.250, lapse-corrected -53 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia's article Barley, the English article of this species' Wikidata item (Q11577)
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 115 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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