Flower:

A single, densely packed, nodding to arching spike 2 to 4 inches long at the tip of the stem, with a group of 3 spikelets (flower clusters) at each node. Each spikelet has a single floret and is whitish green to purplish at flowering time. The lateral spikelets are sterile and short-stalked, the center spikelet fertile and stalkless.

At the base of each spikelet is a pair of bracts (glumes) that are 1 to 3½ inches long, not much broadened at the base and essentially just a long, rough awn, initially erect and straight, becoming spreading with maturity. Florets are surrounded by a pair of bracts (lemma and palea), the fertile lemma narrowly lance-elliptic, 4 to 8.5 mm long with a rough awn up to 3½ inches long, the awn erect to ascending; the fertile palea is about as long as the lemma and not awned. Sterile lemma are smaller with shorter awns and are often reduced to just a bristle.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are alternate, 2 to 6 inches long, up to 5 mm wide, rough textured to softly hairy, flat or rolled up along the edge (involute), and green to blue-green.

The sheath is open, green with pale, translucent edging, the edges overlapping near the tip, usually hairless, sometimes hairy. The ligule (membrane where the leaf joins the sheath) is .2 to .8 mm long, more or less straight across, and hairless. Nodes are hairless and brown to purplish. Stems are unbranched, smooth, erect or the lower stem prostrate then rising at the lower node (geniculate). Stems are multiple from the base and form loose to dense clumps.

Fruit:

Spikelets turn tan as they mature, the glumes curving outward near the base as they dry, with the straight awns giving the cluster a spiky bottle-brush appearance. The entire group of 3 spikelets drops off when mature, leaving a naked stem behind. Grains (seeds) are oval-elliptic and smooth except for short hairs at the tip.

Notes:

Foxtail Barley is a common grass of disturbed soils, seen on seasonally wet shores and banks, old fields and roadsides, often in saline soil. Even though it is considered by some to be a weedy species, the flowering spikes are actually quite attractive, silky and waving in the slightest breeze. Later in the season, the dried seed head takes on a very different look, though still quite interesting I think - Squirrel-tail and Foxtail are both appropriate common names. It is not easily confused with any other grass in Minnesota. There are 2 subspecies: subsp. intermedium present to our west in the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, has awns not more than 35 mm (~1 1/3 inch) long, and subsp. jubatum, common throughout much of North America, with awns not less than 35 mm long.