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Chilean chess

Alaska brome, Sitka brome

Habit Plants annual; often tufted. Plants perennial; loosely cespitose.
Culms

30-60 cm, slender.

120-180 cm tall, 3-5 mm thick, erect.

Sheaths

pilose-pubescent to nearly glabrous;

blades 7-28 cm long, 2-9 mm wide, pilose or glabrous.

glabrous or sparsely pilose;

auricles absent;

ligules 3-4 mm, glabrous or hairy, obtuse, lacerate;

blades 20^40 cm long, 2-9 mm wide, flat, sparsely pilose adaxially or on both surfaces.

Panicles

10-20 cm long, 3-9 cm wide, erect, dense;

branches appressed to spreading, sometimes flexuous.

25-35 cm, open;

lower branches to 20 cm, 2-4(6) per node, spreading, often drooping, with 1-3 spikelets on the distal 1/2 sometimes confined to the tips.

Spikelets

15-20 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, more or less terete, with 3-9 florets.

18-38 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, strongly laterally compressed, with (5)6-9 florets.

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.

glabrous, sometimes scabrous;

lower glumes 6-10 mm, 3-5-veined;

upper glumes 8-11 mm, 5-7-veined;

lemmas 12-14(15) mm, lanceolate, laterally compressed, 7-11-veined, strongly keeled at least distally, usually glabrous, sometimes hirtellous, margins sometimes sparsely pilose, apices entire or with acute teeth, teeth shorter than 1 mm;

awns 5-10 mm;

anthers to 6 mm.

2n

= unknown.

= 42, 56.

Bromus berteroanus

Bromus sitchensis

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV; OR; UT
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from FNA
AK; CA; OR; WA; BC
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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 sitchensis grows on exposed rock bluffs and cliffs, and in meadows, often in the partial shade of forests along the ocean edge, and on road verges and other disturbed sites. Its range extends from the Aleutian Islands and Alaska panhandle through British Columbia to southern California.

Bromus sitchensis resembles B. aleutensis, the two sometimes being treated as conspecific varieties. Bromus sitchensis is predominantly outcrossing, while B. aleutensis is predominantly self-fertilizing (C.L. Hitchcock 1969).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 24, p. 224. FNA vol. 24, p. 201.
Parent taxa Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Bromeae > Bromus > sect. Neobromus Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Bromeae > Bromus > sect. Ceratochloa
Sibling taxa
B. aleutensis, B. anomalus, B. arenarius, B. arizonicus, B. arvensis, B. briziformis, B. carinatus, B. caroli-henrici, B. catharticus, B. ciliatus, B. commutatus, B. danthoniae, B. diandrus, B. erectus, B. frondosus, B. grandis, B. hallii, B. hordeaceus, B. inermis, B. japonicus, B. kalmii, B. laevipes, B. lanatipes, B. lanceolatus, B. latiglumis, B. lepidus, B. madritensis, B. maritimus, B. mucroglumis, B. nottowayanus, B. orcuttianus, B. pacificus, B. polyanthus, B. porteri, B. pseudolaevipes, B. pubescens, B. pumpellianus, B. racemosus, B. ramosus, B. richardsonii, B. riparius, B. rubens, B. scoparius, B. secalinus, B. sitchensis, B. squarrosus, B. sterilis, B. suksdorfii, B. tectorum, B. texensis, B. vulgaris
B. aleutensis, B. anomalus, B. arenarius, B. arizonicus, B. arvensis, B. berteroanus, B. briziformis, B. carinatus, B. caroli-henrici, B. catharticus, B. ciliatus, B. commutatus, B. danthoniae, B. diandrus, B. erectus, B. frondosus, B. grandis, B. hallii, B. hordeaceus, B. inermis, B. japonicus, B. kalmii, B. laevipes, B. lanatipes, B. lanceolatus, B. latiglumis, B. lepidus, B. madritensis, B. maritimus, B. mucroglumis, B. nottowayanus, B. orcuttianus, B. pacificus, B. polyanthus, B. porteri, B. pseudolaevipes, B. pubescens, B. pumpellianus, B. racemosus, B. ramosus, B. richardsonii, B. riparius, B. rubens, B. scoparius, B. secalinus, B. squarrosus, B. sterilis, B. suksdorfii, B. tectorum, B. texensis, B. vulgaris
Synonyms B. trinii var. excelsus, B. trinii
Name authority Colla Trin.
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