Barley
Barley
Grass
A whiskery cereal grass grown across UK farms for feed, malting and brewing — and one of the first plants people ever farmed, some 10,000 years ago.
💡 Fun Facts
- Barley is a cereal grass grown on farms for animal feed and for making beer and whisky.
- Each ear has long, whiskery bristles called awns that stick out like a spiky beard.
- It was one of the very first plants people ever farmed, around 10,000 years ago.
📅 Through the Year
- Flowering:June
- Fruiting:July to August
Name Story
Hordeum vulgare
means “common barley”
What does its name mean?
- Hordeum — barleyLatin — the old name for barley, often linked to horrēre ‘to bristle’
- vulgare — common, ordinaryLatin vulgaris ‘common, widespread’Decode this word →
The first word is the old Latin name for barley, often linked to a word meaning ‘to bristle’ — a nod to the long whiskery ‘beard’ of awns on every ear. The second word simply means ‘common’, because barley is one of the most widely grown grains of all.