Hordeum jubatum L.
Foxtail barley, squirreltail, squirreltail barley.
Sp. Pl. 85. 1753. Habitat in Canada Kalm.
Elymus jubatus Link, Hort. Regius Bot. Berol. 1: 19. 1827. Critesion jubatum Nevski in Komarov, Fl. USSR 2: 721. 1934.
Hordeum caespitosum Scribn. in Pammel, Proc. Davenport Acad. Nat. Sci. 7: 245. 1899. H. jubatum var. caespitosum A.S. Hitchc., Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 41: 160. 1928. (Type: U.S.A. Wyoming: Geranium Park, July 1897, Pammel 157).
Plants caespitose; less than 15 cm high, or more than 15 cm high; (20–)30–70 cm high. Ground-level or under-ground stems not developed horizontally or vertically at, on, or below, the ground. Aerial stems erect, or decumbent; glabrous. Leaves distributed along the stems. Prophylls 10 mm long (approximately); with smooth veins; lacking pronounced keels. Sheaths with the margins fused only in the lower part; glabrous. Ligules 0.5–1 mm long; a fringed membrane; hairy; transversely oblong; apices truncate; erose. Blades 50–200 mm long; 1.5–4(–5) mm wide; appressed to the stem; rolled in bud; without auricles; flat, or involute; midvein similar in size to other veins in the leaf. Blades adaxial surface scabrous, or hairy (with long trichomes). Blades abaxial surface scabrous, or hairy (with long trichomes).
Flowering culm nodes becoming exposed; number visible 0–3. Inflorescence spicate (the spikelets forming a triad at each node with the central one fertile and usually sessile; the lateral ones pedicellate, and usually sterile); dense; lanceolate; 4–10 cm long (excluding awns); 40–80 mm wide (including awns). Inflorescence. Inflorescence main axis hairy. Spikelets. Spikelets pedicellate (lateral spikelets borne on curved pedicels, 0.7–1.2 mm long), or sessile (central fertile floret); disarticulating at the nodes of the main axis (above each node, the rachis segment remaining at the base of the spikelet triad); dorsoventrally compressed (fertile spikelet); ovate (fertile spikelet); 5.5–8 mm long; 1–1.5 mm wide. Florets per spikelet 1 (for each member of the triad). Glumes. First glume 1 × the length of the second glume; 1 × spikelet length; 25–60(–150) mm long; linear; with trichomes; margins ciliate; veins 1; apex acuminate. Second glume as long, or longer than the spikelet (awn-like); almost as long as, or longer than, the lowest floret; linear; 25–60(–150) mm long; with trichomes; veins 1. Rachilla internode 0.3–0.5 mm long; scabrous. Rachilla not pronounced between the florets; extending beyond the uppermost floret (awn-like, sometimes with a rudimentary floret). Lemmas. Lemma 5.5–8 mm long; elliptic; rounded on the back; surface dull; surface glabrous; veins 5. Lemma apex acuminate; entire; glabrous; awned. Awn arising from the tip; 10–60 mm long. Palea well developed; 5–7.5 mm long (sub-equal to lemma); with glabrous veins. Perianth reduced to lodicules. Anthers 1–1.5 mm long. Styles 2. Fruit sessile. Fruit dry; indehiscent. Fruit 6–8 mm long. Seeds 1.
Distribution. Arctic Islands: Baffin.
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: dry meadows (grass meadow, disturbed locations); gravel, sand. Habitats: A widespread temperate species that in Inuvik is sometimes mowed as a lawn grass. It appears to be an accidental introduction on Baffin Island.
Taxon as an environmental indicator. This introduced species could be indicative of Hudson Bay store activity in an area in the past, or Northern Store activity in the present, as freighter canoes built in Quebec near Montreal, are packed with straw for shipping and foxtail barley seed may be present in that straw.
Notes. This species was first collected in the Arctic Islands in 1986, as an apparently accidental introduction at Apex, Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island (63°43'N, 68°27'W), in front of the former Hudson Bay Manager's house. It is suggested that it was introduced in straw used as packing in freighter canoes shipped north from near Montreal. The introduction is suspected to have occurred in the late 1960's when straw was fed to a goat tethered where the plants were found. Plants were observed in 1986, 1989, and again in 1998. They were flourishing and the species would be expected to do well if introduced at other sites.
The taxon in the Arctic is subsp. jubatum. It occurs in the Arctic regions of Continental N.W.T. and the Yukon.
Illustrations. • Field plants. Nunavut, Baffin Island, Apex, in front of Hudson Bay manager's house. Introduction that possibly came in with straw used to pack freighter canoes shipped up from Montreal. One year it was fed to a goat or was it a pig?. This grass was observed in 1986, and still present in 1997. • Distribution map.
Cite this publication as: ‘S.G. Aiken, L.L. Consaul, and M.J. Dallwitz. 1995 onwards. Poaceae of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 10th December 2001. http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/’. Dallwitz (1980), Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000) , and Aiken, Dallwitz et al. (1999) should also be cited (see References).
