Barley is the seed kernel of the grass plant Coix lacryma. It is a robust annual herb with yellowish-white fibrous roots, spongy, ca. 3 mm in diameter. Culms erect tufted, 1-2 m tall, with more than 10 nodes, nodes much branched.

Leaf sheaths shorter than their internodes, glabrous; ligules scarious, ca. 1 mm; leaf blades flattened and broad, spreading, 10-40 cm long, 1.5-3 cm wide, base rounded or subcordate, midvein thick, elevated underneath, margins scabrous, usually glabrous.

Racemes axillary into bundles, 4-10 cm long, erect or pendulous, long pedunculate. Female spikelets in lower part of inflorescence, subtended by bony moniliform involucre, which is ovoid, 7-10 mm long, 6-8 mm in diameter, enameled, hard, glossy; first glume ovoid, apically acuminate-beaked, with more than 10 veins, enclosing the second glume and the first lemma;

second lemma shorter than the glumes, 3-veined, the second palea smaller; stamens often degenerate; pistillode with a slender stigmatic head Pistil with slender stigma, projecting from tip of involucre. Caryopsis small, containing little starch, often not full.

Male spikelets 2-3 pairs, inserted in upper part of raceme, 1-2 cm long; sessile male spikelet 6-7 mm long, first glume herbaceous, margins inflexed into ridges, with unequal wings, tip obtuse, with numerous veins, second glume navicular; lemma and palea membranous; first and second florets often with 3 stamens, anthers orange-yellow, 4-5 mm long; stalked male spikelet similar to sessile or smaller, and variously reduced. and varying degrees of degeneration.

Extended information

Methods of propagation

Seeds are sown live, spring and summer: spring sowing is in the early spring in mid- and late April (Yangtze River Valley), which has a longer reproductive period and higher yields. Summer sowing is sown after the harvest of oilseed rape or large, wheat, shorter reproductive period, the plant is relatively short, can be appropriate to increase the density. Generally to row spacing of 20 cm × 10 cm, sowing amount of 2.5-3.5 kg per mu, field basic seedling in the 250,000 or so is appropriate.

Geographical distribution

Produced in China Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Fujian, Taiwan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other provinces and regions; distributed in southeastern Asia and the Pacific Islands, the world's tropics, subtropics, Africa, and the Americas hot wetland zone have been planted or escape.

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