36 FARM WEEDS OF CANADA 



SKUNK-TAIL GRASS (Hordeum jubatum L.) 



Other English names: Skunk Grass, Squirrel-tail Grass, 

 Wild Barley, Tickle Grass, and, inaccurately called Foxtail. 



Native. Perennial, not flowering the first year, forming 

 tufts 8 to 12 inches high. Leaves grayish-green. Flowers in 

 beautiful, silky, bristly heads, 3 to 4 inches long, pale yellowish- 

 green often tinged with red. When ripe, the spikes break up 

 into 7-awned clusters of three flowers. The central long-awned 

 flower is the fertile female one; on each side of it and attached 

 to its base are two barren flowers, each with three shorter awns. 



The seed produced by the female flower is slender, sharp 

 pointed, somewhat resembling a miniature seed of barley, and 

 provided with a long, upwardly-barbed awn. 



Time of flowering: July; seeds ripe July to August. 



Propagation: By seeds. This grass is frequently said to 

 be an annual or biennial; but all the plants grown in Ottawa 

 from western seed during the past twenty years are certainly 

 perennial, forming large tufts but sending out no running root- 

 stocks. 



Occurrence: From Lake Superior westward, particularly 

 in alkaline soil where better grasses can not thrive. Occasional 

 in eastern Canada. 



Injury: This grass is a serious enemy to western stockmen, 

 being a source of much injury to horses, cattle and sheep. The 

 barbed seeds and awns penetrate the soft tissues of the mouth, 

 causing irritation and inflamed ulcers; they work down beside 

 the teeth, producing inflammation and swelling; and they are 

 also said to work into the wool about the eyes of sheep, then into 

 the tissues surrounding the eye, and even into the ball itself, 

 in many instances causing total blindness. 



Remedy: T. N. Willing, of Regina, Sask., sums up the 

 best methods of dealing with Skunk-tail Grass as follows: 



