| Hordeum pusillum | ||||||||||||||||
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| Hordeum pusillum L. |
Hordeum pusillum or Little barley is a diploid species of grass. Hordeum pusillum, native to the United States except the westernmost parts, originated via long-distance dispersal of a southern South American Hordeum species to North America about 1 million years ago. Its closest relatives are therefore not the other North American taxa like Meadow Barley or Foxtail Barley but annual taxa occurring in the pampas of Central Argentina and Uruguay. It is also only distantly related to the crop Barley, from which the lineage leading to H. pusillum diverged about 12 million years ago.
The tiny seeds are edible, and this plant was part of the Pre-Columbian Eastern Agricultural Complex of cultivated plants used by Native Americans. Before being displaced by maize agriculture, Little Barley may have been domesticated. Today it can be found in grassland and at the borders of marshes, as well as in ruderal habitats like roadsides.
Literature
- F. R. Blattner (2006). "Multiple intercontinental dispersals shaped the distribution area of Hordeum (Poaceae)". New Phytologist 169 (3): 603–614. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2005.01610.x.
- T. Pleines & F. R. Blattner (2008). "Phylogeographic implications of an AFLP phylogeny of the American diploid Hordeum species (Poaceae: Triticeae)". Taxon 57 (3): 875–881. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iapt/tax/2008/00000057/00000003/art00016.
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