Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) mapping populations have been developed that are useful to study the inheritance of quantitative resistance to adapted and unadapted rust fungi. In a recent host range study, we found that the parents of those mapping populations also differed in their resistance to the crown rust Puccinia coronata (PcE) of couch grass (Elymus repens), as well as three isolates of P. striiformis, representing formae speciales hordei (Psh), tritici (Pst) and bromi (Psb). Available mapping populations were phenotyped at the seedling stage to map the genes conferring resistance to these rust isolates. Resistances to PcE, Psb and Pst inherit quantitatively. This contrasted with reports that barley nonhost resistance to unadapted formae speciales of P. striiformis is based on major genes. We mapped QTLs effective against PcE using relative latency period and relative infection frequency. Some QTLs for resistance were contributed by 'Vada' and 'Cebada Capa', others by SusPtrit. One PcE-resistance QTL on 3H, contributed by 'Cebada Capa', co-localised with a QTL effective against four unadapted grass rust species, indicating either a single gene with broad-spectrum effectiveness or a cluster of rather specific genes. Chromosome arm 7HL from Vada seems particularly rich in genes for resistance to rust fungi. Resistance to Pst and Psb, measured as the number of uredinia, tended to co-localise with each other and mapped to 1HS, 2HL and 7HL. The nearly complete resistance of Ethiopian line L94 to Psh was due to a major gene mapped on chromosome 4H. That gene is likely the recessive gene rpsGZ, which was previously reported in the Ethiopian line Grannenlose Zweizeilige.