Central spikelets: glumes 15-35 mm, spreading at maturity; lemmas awned, awns 11-35 mm.

Hordeum jubatum subsp. intermedium is most abundant in the dry prairies of the northern Rocky Mountains and northern plains, growing at 0-3000 m. It also grows, as a disjunct, in southern Mexico. It is sometimes treated as a species, either as H. intermedium Hausskn. or H. ×intermedium Hausskn., the latter reflecting a suspected hybrid origin involving H. jubatum and H. brachyantherum.