Bromus arizonicus
Bromus rubens
Arizona brome
fox-tail brome, foxtail chess, red brome
30-90 cm tall, to 3 mm thick, erect.
10-40 cm, erect or ascending, often puberulent below the panicle.
retrorsely pilose, sometimes mostly glabrous, throats sometimes with hairs;
auricles absent;
ligules 1-4 mm, usually glabrous, obtuse, erose;
blades 8-18 cm long, 3-9 mm wide, flat, sparsely pilose on both surfaces or the abaxial surfaces glabrous.
softly pubescent to pilose;
auricles absent;
ligules 1-3(4) mm, pubescent, obtuse, lacerate;
blades to 15 cm long, 1-5 mm wide, flat, pubescent on both surfaces.
12-25 cm, somewhat contracted or open;
lower branches shorter than 10 cm, 2-3(5) per node, initially erect to ascending, spreading at maturity, with 1-2 spikelets variously distributed.
2-10 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, erect, dense, often reddish brown;
branches 0.1-1 cm, ascending, never drooping, not readily visible, with 1 or 2 spikelets.
18-25 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, strongly laterally compressed, with 4-8 florets.
18-25 mm, much longer than the panicle branches, densely crowded, subsessile, with parallel sides or widening distally, moderately laterally compressed, with 4-8 florets.
subequal, smooth or scabrous;
lower glumes 8-12.5 mm, 3-veined;
upper glumes 9.5-14 mm, 7-veined, about as long as the lowest lemma;
lemmas 9.5-14 mm, lanceolate, laterally compressed, prominently 7-veined, strongly keeled at least distally, glabrous or pubescent distally or throughout, marginal hairs, if present, longer than those elsewhere, apices entire or with acute teeth shorter than 1 mm;
awns 6-13 mm, sometimes slightly geniculate;
anthers 0.4-0.5 mm.
pilose, margins hyaline;
lower glumes 5-8 mm, 1(3)-veined;
upper glumes 8-12 mm, 3-5-veined;
lemmas 10-15 mm, linear-lanceolate, pubescent to pilose, 7-veined.
over the midvein, margins hyaline, apices acuminate, teeth 1-3 mm;
awns 8-20 mm, straight, reddish, arising 1.5 mm or more below the lemma apices;
anthers 0.5-1 mm.
= 84.
= 14, 28.
Bromus arizonicus
Bromus rubens
Bromus arizonicus grows in dry, open areas and disturbed ground of the southwest, usually below 2000 m. Its range extends from California and southern Nevada into Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico.
Stebbins et al. (1944) demonstrated that, like Bromus carinatus var. carinatus, B. arizonicus obtained three of its genomes from B. catharticus or a close relative, but the remaining three genomes are not homologous with those in B. carinatus, probably being derived from a species in a section other than Ceratochloa. The small anthers of B. arizonicus strongly suggest that most seed is produced by selfing.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Bromus rubens is native to southern and southwestern Europe. It now grows in North America in disturbed ground, waste places, fields, and rocky slopes, from southern Washington to southern California, eastward to Idaho, New Mexico, and western Texas. It was found in Massachusetts before 1900 in wool waste used on a crop field; it is not established there. The record from New York represents a rare introduction; it is not known whether it is established.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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