Bromus berteroanus |
Bromus briziformis |
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Chilean chess |
rattlesnake brome, rattlesnake chess, rattlesnake grass |
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Habit | Plants annual; often tufted. | Plants annual. |
Culms | 30-60 cm, slender. |
20-62 cm, erect or ascending. |
Sheaths | pilose-pubescent to nearly glabrous; blades 7-28 cm long, 2-9 mm wide, pilose or glabrous. |
densely pilose; ligules 0.5-2 mm, hairy, obtuse, erose; blades 3-13 cm long, 2-4 mm wide, pilose to pubescent on both surfaces. |
Panicles | 10-20 cm long, 3-9 cm wide, erect, dense; branches appressed to spreading, sometimes flexuous. |
5-15 cm long, 3-7 cm wide, open, secund, nodding; branches sometimes longer than the spikelets, curved to reflexed. |
Spikelets | 15-20 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, more or less terete, with 3-9 florets. |
15-27 mm long, 8-12 mm wide, ovate, laterally compressed; florets 7-15, bases concealed at maturity; rachilla internodes concealed at maturity. |
Glumes | glabrous, acuminate; lower glumes 8-10 mm, 1-veined; upper glumes 12-16 mm, 3(5)-veined; lemmas 11-14 mm, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, sparsely pubescent, 5-veined, rounded over the midvein, apices acuminate, bifid, teeth 2-3 mm, usually aristate, sometimes acuminate; awns 13-20 mm, geniculate, strongly to moderately twisted in the basal portion, arising 1.5 mm or more below the lemma apices; anthers 2-2.5 mm. |
smooth or scabridulous; lower glumes 5-6 mm, 3-5-veined; upper glumes 6-8 mm, 7-9-veined; lemmas 9-10 mm long, 6-8 mm wide, inflated, obovate or rhombic, coriaceous, smooth or scabridulous, obscurely 9-veined, rounded over the midvein, margins hyaline, 1-1.3 mm wide, abruptly angled, not inrolled at maturity, apices acute to obtuse, bifid, teeth shorter than 1 mm; awns usually absent, sometimes to 1 mm, arising less than 1.5 mm below the lemma apices; anthers 0.7-1 mm. |
Caryopses | equaling or shorter than the paleas, thin, weakly inrolled or flat. |
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2n | = unknown. |
= 14. |
Bromus berteroanus |
Bromus briziformis |
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Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; OR; UT
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AK; CA; CO; CT; DE; ID; IL; IN; MA; MD; MI; MT; ND; NE; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OR; PA; SD; UT; VT; WA; WY; BC; ON
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Discussion | Bromus berteroanus is from Chile, and can now be found in dry areas in western North America, including British Columbia, Montana, California, Nevada, Arizona, southwestern Utah, and Baja California, Mexico. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Bromus briziformis grows in waste places, road verges, and overgrazed areas. It is native to southwest Asia and Europe, and is adventive in the Flora region, occurring from southern British Columbia to as far south as New Mexico, and in scattered locations eastward. The unique shape of its spikelets has led to its use in dried flower arrangements and as a garden ornamental. The common name may refer to the similarity of the spikelets to a rattlesnake's tail. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 224. | FNA vol. 24, p. 228. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | B. trinii var. excelsus, B. trinii | B. brizaeformis |
Name authority | Colla | Fisch. & C.A. Mey. |
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