Six-rowed Barley - Hordeum vulgare

Hordeum vulgare has erect stems with few, alternate leaves its spike is notched on opposite sides, with three spikelets at each notch, each containing a small individual flower, or floret, that develops a kernel. All 3 spikelets in each row are fertile (H. distichon has only 1 fertile spikelet in each row).  Now rarely cultivated but persisting as occasional relic in waste places, etc.

Two-rowed Barley (Hordeum distichon) and other Hordeum, including some rarely recorded alien species. 

Annual.  Long awns > 10cm; spikelets in groups of three, the two lateral ones fertile and with long awns, unlike Two-rowed Barley where the two lateral florets in a spikelet are sterile and awnless or short-awned. 

Unless identified by a recognised expert, a photo is required. If the photo doesn't show the key ID features then in the comments box describe the size and identifying characters you have observed.

Sometimes found on arable land as a relic of cultivation, and on roadsides and waste ground as a bird-seed and grain casual.

Flowering June to August.

Annual

Widespread but occasional in Britain.

Rarely recorded in the wild in Leicestershire and Rutland.