Hordeum

Hordeum is a genus of about 30 species of annual and perennial grasses, native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere, temperate South America, and also South Africa.

One species, H. vulgare (barley), is of major commercial importance as a cereal grain, used as fodder crop and for malting in beer and whiskey production. Some species are nuisance weeds introduced worldwide by human activities others endangered due to habitat loss.

Hordeum species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including The Flame, Rustic Shoulder-knot and Setaceous Hebrew Character.

The name comes from the Latin for bristle, and is akin to horror.