A study of the grain-bearing grass known as Job’s-tears (Coix lachryma-jobi L.). The single stalk breaks into two curving heads from which spring bearded ears, something like those of barley. The plant is native to Asia, and this is its first record in western Europe. Melzi's number 152.

Leonardo drew plants and flowers throughout his life, following the tradition of naturalistic detail in fifteenth-century Italian art. His finest botanical drawings were made in connection with a painting of Leda and the Swan, but what started as studies towards a painting soon became scientific studies in their own right, apparently towards a treatise on the structure of plants and trees.

Text adapted from Leonardo da Vinci: A life in drawing, London, 2018