The common name for any of a genus of cereal grass, native to Asia and Ethiopia, and one of the most ancient of cultivated plants. Its cultivation is mentioned in the Bible, and it was grown by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Chinese. In the United States and Canada, as well as in the greater portion of Europe, barley is sown in the spring. Along the Mediterranean Sea and in parts of California and Arizona, it is sown in the fall. It is also grown as a winter annual in the southern United States.
Barley germinates at about the same temperature as wheat.
The common name for any of a genus of vines. Hop plants have rough stems and heart-shaped leaves of three to seven lobes. Small staminate and pistillate flowers are produced on separate plants. The entire conelike catkin of achenes and bracts, the hop of commerce, is covered with a fine yellow powder called lupulin or hop flour. Lupulin, which gives the hop its bitter flavor and aroma, is used as a sedative.