In barley, haploids can be produced by wide crossing with the related species Hordeum bulbosum, fertilization is effected, but during the early stages of seed development the H. bulbosum chromosomes are eliminated leaving a haploid embryo.
Hordeum species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including The Flame, Rustic Shoulder-knot and Setaceous Hebrew Character.
9th millennium BCE: Barley (Hordeum vulgare ssp. vulgare) is domesticated in the Fertile Crescent in West Asia.