Bromus berteroanus
Bromus polyanthus
Chilean chess
Colorado brome, great-basin brome
30-60 cm, slender.
60-120 cm tall, to 3 mm thick, erect, glabrous or puberulent.
pilose-pubescent to nearly glabrous;
blades 7-28 cm long, 2-9 mm wide, pilose or glabrous.
usually smooth or scabrous, sometimes hairy except at the throat;
auricles absent;
ligules (1)2-2.5 mm, glabrous, obtuse, erose;
blades 10-31 cm long, 2-9 mm wide, flat, sometimes scabrous, usually glabrous, rarely puberulent to pubescent near the collar.
10-20 cm long, 3-9 cm wide, erect, dense;
branches appressed to spreading, sometimes flexuous.
10-20 cm, open to somewhat contracted;
lower branches shorter than 10 cm, (1)2-3 per node, erect, ascending or spreading, with 1-2 spikelets variously distributed.
15-20 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, more or less terete, with 3-9 florets.
20-35 mm, shorter than at least some pedicels and branches, elliptic to lanceolate, strongly laterally compressed, not crowded or overlapping, with 6-11 florets.
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 scabrous;
lower glumes (5.5)7-10(11.5) mm, 3-veined;
upper glumes (7.5) 9-11(12.5) mm, 5-7-veined, shorter than the lowest lemma;
lemmas 12-15 mm, lanceolate, laterally compressed, strongly keeled at least distally, glabrous, sometimes scabrous, 7-9-veined, veins usually not raised or riblike, apices entire or with acute teeth, teeth shorter than 1 mm;
awns 4-7 mm;
anthers 1-5 mm.
= unknown.
= 56.
Bromus berteroanus
Bromus polyanthus
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 polyanthus grows on open slopes and in meadows. It is found primarily in the central Rocky Mountains, but the limits of its range include British Columbia in the north, California in the west, and Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas in the south. It is not known from Mexico. It intergrades with B. carinatus var. marginatus. Plants with an erect, contracted panicle and awns 4-6 mm long can be called B. polyanthus var. polyanthus; those with with an open, nodding panicle and awns up to 8 mm long can be called B. polyanthus var. paniculatus Shear. Because the variation in both characters is continuous, the varieties are not recognized here.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
CA
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
PNW Herbaria
