Foxtail Barley

This photograph of the drooping seed heads of Foxtail Barley was made in a pasture near New Lebanon, Ohio. In fact, the pasture adjoined my back yard. I noticed these pinkish areas of green grass waving in the breeze or shining in the sunlight and wondered what it was.

A trip to the county Extension Service office identified it as Foxtail Barley (Hordeum jubatum). Considered a noxious weed by farmers and ranchers due to the barbs on the bristles (awns) that irritate grazing animals when eaten, it nevertheless has a beauty and grace of form all its own. The pinkness of its bristles as the seedheads mature seems to make shimmering waves of pink on green grass.

Foxtail Barley is a member of the Barley tribe in the grass family. It should not be confused with the common "foxtail" grasses (genus Setaria), which look much different.

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