Hordeum pusillum Nutt.

Annual to 4(–6) dm; lvs flat, 2–4 mm wide, erect, without auricles; spikes 2–7 cm (excl. awns), erect; central spikelet sessile, the lateral on curved pedicels 0.3–0.7(–1) mm, their florets reduced, awn-tipped, and borne on curved rachilla-joints ca 0.5 mm; glumes 7–12(–15) mm, those of the central spikelet and the inner glumes of the lateral spikelets slightly to conspicuously broadened above the base before narrowing into slender awns, the outermost glumes wholly awn-like and somewhat shorter, scabrous to puberulent; fertile lemma 5–7 mm, scabrous, faintly 5-veined, tapering into a short awn (4–)5–8 mm; anthers 0.5–0.8 mm; 2n=14. Native weed of pastures, roadsides, and moderately moist waste places; Del. to Fla., w. to Wash., Calif., and n. Mex., and casually intr. n. to Me., Mich., and Minn.; s. S. Amer.

It grows in the tropics and subtropics. In Argentina it grows from sea level to 1,000 m above sea level.