Barley

The barley (Hordeum vulgare) plant is a herbaceous annual of the family of poàcies characterized by their ears with long edges. A crop of great importance both for animals and for humans.  In the classification of the 2007 cereal crops in the world, barley was the fourth in terms of quantity produced (136 million tons) and area of cultivation (566000 km²).  

Barley is a plant poàcia. This species diploid autopolar • linitzadora equipped with fourteen chromosomes. The wild ancestor of barley, domesticated , Hordeum vulgare ssp. spontaneum, is abundant in grasslands and forests around theFertile Crescent, and is abundant in disturbed habitats , the sides of roads and paths and gardens.  Outside this region, wild barley is rare and usually found in disturbed habitats.

Barley, like other poàciesGoshen, ie new shoots that will emit more spikes

The root of the plant is fasciculada and barley can be identified primary and secondary roots.  The primary roots are formed by the growth of radicle and disappear into the stem.  The root reaches shallow compared to other cereals. It is estimated that 60% of this weight is in the first 25 centimeters of soil and roots rarely exceed120 cmdeep.  

The stalk of barley is a rod blank that has seven to eight entrenusos, separated by the respective nodes. The entrenusos are longer as the stem grows from the basal region.  The number of stems on each plant is variable and each ending in a spike.

The leaves are shaped by the sheath and the basal lamina, which are linked to the ligule and have two membranous extensions called atria. The leaves are inserted in the knot for a necklace or stem pulvinus, a bump at the base of the leaf.

His ear is the inflorescence of the plant is considered an extension of the stem, which is similar to other plants grasses, has reduced perianth.  The protective role is played by glumel • les and shovels.

The seed of barley is afusada shape, thicker in the center and decreasing towards the end.  The husk of the barley (in the type suits), the grain protects against predators and is useful in the process of malt and beer.  Represents 13% of the weight of the grain and varies depending on the variety of grain and latitude of planting.

Barley is mainly represented by two species cultivated: Distichon Hordeum L., used for the production of beer , and Hordeum L. hexastichon, which is used as fodder for animal feed, both species be grouped under the name Hordeum vulgare L.  ssp.  vulgare, which are grouped the L. Hordeum spontaneum, wild barley.

In two ranks (Hordeum L. Distichon) espiguetes the side are sterile and do so in the ears from its apex observed two rows of large, corresponding to the one that has been espigueta each level of the spine, on one side and the other.

In the six rows of baited (Hordeum hexastichon L.), with all espiguetes fertile , there are three at each level of the spine and the section of the ear can distinguish light from the top six rows of grains.  Sometimes, depending on the arrangement of grains, the barley may seem baited six rows of four ranks.

The shape of the grain can distinguish between two rows of baited baited six ranks.  The two rows are all great symmetrical and the main variation in size is among the largest in the middle of the ear and the ends.  In barley ranks third of six children are symmetric (corresponding to the middle of each level of the spine) and the rest are recorbats and smaller, the large symmetrical six ranks are slightly compressed laterally, while the two ranks are wider and rounded.

Barley was one of the first crops to be domesticated in theMiddle East, while the einkorn and Pisana mate. The geographical distribution of wild barley (H. vulgare ssp. spontaneum) s’ extends from North Africa and Crete in the west toTibetin the east. The earliest evidence of wild barley in the context archaeological lie in the Epipalaeolithic and come from Ohalo II, a archaeological site located at the southern end ofLake Tiberias.  The remains were dated approximately 17,000 BC.  The oldest domestic barley fields shown in Neolithic aceràmics the Middle East, for example, the layers of the preceramic Neolithic B of Tell Abu Hureyra inSyria.  The barley was grown in the Korean peninsula since the early period of the ceramic Mumuni (ca. 1500-850 BC), along with other crops such as millet, the grain or vegetables.  

In his book won a Pulitzer Prize Guns, brother, and Steel , Jared Diamond argues that the availability of barley along with other crops and animals domesticated in south-west of Eurasia , has contributed significantly to the patterns general historical human history that has followed over approximately the last 13,000 years: for example, why Eurasian civilizations, in general, have survived and conquered others, trying to refute the belief that Eurasian hegemony is due to any kind of intellectual superiority, moral or inherent genetic Eurasian.

The beer was probably the first barley drink produced by Neolithic humans. Later barley was used as currency. Along with twin Pisana , barley was one of the basic cereal of the ancientEgypt, where he is used to make bread and beer. The general name for barley is jt (hypothetically pronounced “IIT”), Sma (hypothetically pronounced “xii-ma”) refers to the barley in the Upper Egypt and is a symbol ofUpper Egypt. The term isSumerisAkita. According to Deuteronomy 8:8, barley is one of the ” Seven Species “of crops that characterize the fertility of the Promised Land of Canaan , and barley has a prominent role in the sacrifices of Israel described in the Pentateuch (eg. , Numbers 5:15). The importance of religion spread to the Middle Ages inEurope, and barley are used in the justice by the alfitomància or corsned Anglo-Saxon.