Hordeum glaucum, Hordeum murinum,
Wall Barley, Hebrew: שעורה, Arabic: شعر الدب

Scientific name:		Hordeum glaucum Steudel
Synonym name:		Hordeum murinum L., Hordeum stebbinsii Covas
Common name:		Wall Barley, smooth barley, wild barley
Hebrew name:		שעורה
Arabic name:		شعر الدب
Family:		Graminea (Poaceae), Grass Family, משפחת הדגניים

Life form:		Therophyte, annual
Stems:		Up to 60 cm tall; tufted; cylindric, to ± 3 mm basal diameter, striped green and light green; internodes hollow
Leaves:		Alternate, entire; glaucous
Inflorescence:		3-9 cm long; 1.5-3.5 cm broad
Flowers:		Inflorescencecleistogamous (never open), and are generally self-fertilized; spicate, dense, 2–8 cm long to 1 cm wide; flowers generally bisexual, minute; stamens generally 3; stigmas generally 2, generally plumose; green to glaucous, sometimes reddish or brown in fruit
Fruits / pods:		Caryopsis, grain
Flowering Period:		February, March, April
Habitat:		Batha, Phrygana, Nutrient-rich soils, ruderal
Distribution:		Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes, Deserts and extreme deserts, Montane vegetation of Mt. Hermon
Chorotype:		Med - Irano-Turanian
Summer shedding:		Ephemeral

Derivation of the botanical name: Hordeumm, Latin name for barley. glaucum, glaucus, γλαυκοϛ, bright, sparkling, gleaming; grayish, bluish-green ; glaucous. leporinum, lepus or leporis, a hare. murinum, of mice, mouse-gray, like a mouse. The Hebrew name: se'ora, שעורה - "barley" is related to se'ar, שער - "hair", and literally means "the hairy or bearded (grain)". The standard author abbreviation Steudel is used to indicate Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel (1783 – 1856), a German physician and an authority on grasses. The standard author abbreviation Link is used to indicate Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link (1767 – 1851), a German naturalist and botanist. The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy. Hordeum glaucum is easily confused with Hordeum leporinum (Dean 1990). In comparison, Hordeum glaucum is less robust, glabrescent, and bluish green; it also flowers earlier than Hordeum leporinum (Cocks et al. 1976 in Dean 1990). Hordeum glaucum has smaller anthers in the central floret, with the lateral floret anthers being about twice as long as the central floret anthers.