Hexagonal close‐packed (hcp) metals show a deformation behavior, which is quite different from that of materials with cubic crystalline structure. As a consequence, rolled or extruded products of magnesium and its alloys exhibit a strong anisotropy and an unlike yielding in tension and compression. Microstructural mechanisms of deformation in pure magnesium are modeled by constitutive equations of crystal plasticity. Single crystals and textured polycrystals are analyzed numerically. By means of virtual mechanical tests of representative volume elements mesoscopic yield surfaces are generated and compared with phenomenological yield surfaces. The hardening behavior as well as deformation kinematics are accounted while fitting the respective model parameters for a plane stress state. The linking of micro‐ and mesoscale provides a procedure for the simulation of the yielding and hardening behavior of arbitrarily textured solids with hcp structure such as extruded bars or rolled plates.