A hulled barley kernel is a caryopsis enclosed by the tightly adhering floral glumes. The testa, which is formed from the inner integument of the ovule, becomes increasingly resistant to fungi. Spikelets may become parasitized during flowering and afterwards, by air-borne spores and fragments of mycelium of H. sativum. The fungus may cause blighting, shrivelling, and discoloration of the spikelets and maturing kernels, the damage depending upon the time of inoculation. Irregular, dark, thick-walled mycelium may be found massed in the parenchyma of the glumes, pericarp, and lodicules, and ungerminated spores between the glumes and pericarp. This dormant mycelium will remain viable for from two to five years. It germinates when the kernel germinates and infects the young tissues of the plumule and radicle as these organs expand and force their way through and past the infected tissues. It also colonizes the soil nearby, to a limited extent. Embryo blight, pre-emergence and postemergence blight, with malformation, stunting, and lesioning of the seedling may follow infection, the amount of each depending upon certain environmental factors.