Any plant experts on the forum?

**Little Mermaid** · 12-15-2011, 04:40 PM

Hi Mo

Well... to me it looks like some sort of wheat?

I found 1/4 bird´s nest inside of my M40 KM... and one heck of a lot of grass and wheatish growth... so I think that finding that sort of things in helmets are quite common.

Chris

by ObKrieger

Hi guys,

This is a really weird question, so don't make fun of me.

I was looking around inside one of my German helmets earlier and I found this bit of plant material. Is that wheat? a weed? It certainly seems old. It's a long shot for sure, but it would interesting to find out if it belongs to a plant that is indigenous only to Europe.

Sorry for the strange question, I am an archaeologist at heart and these kinds of things intrigue me.

Has anyone else ever found biological remains inside of something?

Regards,
Mo

**ObKrieger** · 12-16-2011, 09:21 AM

Jerry, did you ever ask your wife?

**4md** · 12-16-2011, 11:13 AM

i would say barley as well, if i remember correctly, its been 20 years since i left the farm

**sandgroper** · 12-16-2011, 11:19 AM

Can you imagine if Australian Customs found that coming in, they'd go ballistic! lol

**4md** · 12-16-2011, 11:45 AM

by sandgroper

Can you imagine if Australian Customs found that coming in, they'd go ballistic! lol

theyd probably burn the helmet or completely scrub it

**rabbitface** · 12-16-2011, 12:18 PM

thats why your country is so good,if ObKrieger came upto customs in the uk wearing his lid,c4 strapped to him and that bit of wheat sticking out the crack off his ass they would just wave him through,,lol

**big ned** · 12-16-2011, 05:59 PM

I'm pretty certain it's barley. The husk of a stem of barley is long and pointed compared to wheat, which is fatter and rounder, also the blades on barley are longer, more upright and sharper than wheat, as it appears to be in your pic. Below, barley on the left wheat on the right.

Regards, Ned.

**Jerry B** · 12-16-2011, 06:13 PM

by ObKrieger

Jerry, did you ever ask your wife?

I did Mo and she said it was 20 years since she looked at plant remains and could not differentiate between the Wheat and Barley without looking it up. I forgot, she only does paleo soils these days, my mistake. I still stand by it being Barley rather than wheat, but they both derive from the same sort of family of wild grass which was domesticated in the middle east during the Neolithic.

**ObKrieger** · 12-16-2011, 06:16 PM

After reading about it some, I have to agree with the 'barley'-sayers. Unfortunately that doesn't narrow it down to a specific continent or region, but at least I tried, right?

**Jerry B** · 12-16-2011, 06:22 PM

Yes, cereal plants have been spread around the world for at least 9000 years and Barley is fairly widespread, though in the UK it is often only grown in more marginal areas where wheat does not do so well. Sadly you are unlikely to narrow down the location of where the helmet was used from these remains.