slender wild oat
Avena barbata
The seeds possess long, bent awns that are highly hygroscopic; they twist and untwist in response to humidity changes, effectively walking the seed across the ground and drilling it into the soil.
- Scientific name
- Avena barbata
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Liliopsida › Poales › Poaceae › Avena
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- increasing
- Biome
- grassland
- Habitat
- Grasslands, open woodlands, disturbed roadsides, pastures, and coastal sage scrub.
- Diet
- Autotrophic (utilizes sunlight, carbon dioxide, and soil minerals via photosynthesis).
- Range
- Mediterranean Basin, North America, South America, Australia, South Africa
- Size
- 30 to 120 cm (12 to 47 inches) in height
- Lifespan
- Annual (less than 1 year)
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Generally highly resilient and considered an invasive weed in many regions; threatened locally only by intense urbanization or heavy herbicide application.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless to humans. Safe to approach and touch. However, its sharp, barbed seed awns easily cling to clothing and animal fur, which can cause irritation or lodge painfully in pets' ears, eyes, and paws. Check your pets after walking through dry grass.
Avena barbata is a species of wild oat known by the common name slender wild oat . It has edible seeds. It is a diploidized autotetraploid grass (2n=4x=28). Its diploid ancestors are A. hirtula Lag. and A. wiestii Steud (2n=2x=14), which are considered Mediterranean and desert ecotypes, respectively, comprising a single species. A wiestii and A. hirtula are widespread in the Mediterranean Basin, growing in mixed stands with A. barbata , though they are difficult to tell apart.
Photo: Jesse Rorabaugh, CC0, via iNaturalist
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