Variation for several morphophysiological traits involved in terminal water stress tolerance in barley has been studied on an F3 SSD segregant population from a cross between a tall, tolerant genotype and a dwarf, drought-susceptible cultivar. Relative water content of the penultimate leaf as well as plant height and last and penultimate internode lengths were shown to be closely related to water stress susceptibility of grain filling, and to have medium to high (broad sense) heritability values. Variations of spike photosynthetic parameters (C02 assimilation rate, stomatal conductance, C02 intercellular concentration) due to water stress showed genotypic effects but were not correlated with yield. The interest of ail these traits to screen for drought susceptibility of grain filling is discussed.