Wednesday, 31 August 2016

September Calendar 2016: Wall Barley

September: Wall Barley

On the Coastal Walk

Hordeum murinum
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Genus: Hordeum

habitat: open coastal space
distribution: widespread in the south




Wall barley is a species of grass, grows in grassland, abandoned wasteland, and wherever the seeds are scattered like roadside. It looks like barley.  But it is just, so called, a weed.  This is why it has an unwelcoming name, false barley.  However, a weed is a wild plant.  Cultivated plant were cultivated from wild plants so that human could digest them better and/or they could taste better(sweeter, milder, softer etc.) for human.

Anyway, it was a stunning view at a beach cliff when we were walking on a windy weekend, like (conventional) barley field.  The spiky sun-bleached yellow ochre grass heads were bending, swinging, this way, another way, as the wind from the sea blew over them.

The blue sky looks more blue and clear; the sunlight comes from farther back.  Autumn has come.





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