Barley: Origin, Types, and Early History

Barley originated as a wild grass of the Near East, often called H. spontaneum, but now classed in the same species as cultivated barley, H. vulgare. Wild barley, or remains of it, have been found in N. Africa, Asia Minor, and temperate Asia as far east as Afghanistan. It has fragile ears, from which the seeds fall when mature: a feature necessary to a wild plant which has to propagate itself, but unsuitable for a cultivated crop. Domestication led to the emergence, as early as the 6th millennium bc, of cultivated barley with firmly attached grains, which then became dependent on cultivation for its survival.