Bromus pubescens
Bromus riparius
Canada brome, hairy wood brome, hairy woodland brome
meadow brome
65-120(150) cm, erect;
nodes (3)5-7(9), usually pubescent, sometimes glabrous;
internodes pubescent or glabrous.
30-90 cm, erect or decumbent, forming distinct clumps;
nodes 2-3, glabrous or puberulent;
internodes glabrous or puberulent.
retrorsely pilose, midrib of the culm leaves not abruptly narrowed just below the collar, collars hairy or glabrous;
auricles absent;
ligules 0.5-2 mm, glabrous, obtuse to truncate, erose;
blades 12-32 cm long, 6-15(19) mm wide, flat, 1 or both surfaces glabrous or hairy.
glabrous or with hairs;
auricles to 1 mm on the lower leaves;
ligules 0.4-1.0 mm, glabrous or ciliate, truncate, erose;
blades 10-20 cm long, 2-3 mm wide, scabridulous, glabrous or sparsely pilose, margins sometimes ciliate.
10-25 cm, open, usually nodding;
branches usually spreading, sometimes ascending, often drooping.
8-20 cm long, lax;
branches scabridulous, with 1-2 spikelets.
(13)15-30 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, terete to moderately laterally compressed, with (4)5-10(13) florets.
20-32 mm, lanceolate, becoming cuneate, with 5-8 florets.
usually pubescent, rarely glabrous;
lower glumes 4-8 mm, 1-veined;
upper glumes 5-10 mm, 3(5)-veined, not mucronate;
lemmas 8-12 mm, lanceolate, rounded over the midvein, backs and margins usually hairy, sometimes glabrous or scabrous, apices subulate to acute, entire;
awns (3)4-7(8) mm, straight, arising less than 1.5 mm below the lemma apices;
anthers 2-4(5) mm.
glabrous, sometimes scabridulous on the veins;
lower glumes 6.5-10 mm, 1(3)-veined;
upper glumes 7.5-12 mm, 3-5-veined;
lemmas 10-13 mm, oblong to lanceolate, rounded over the midvein, 7-veined, glabrous or appressed-hairy, sometimes scabridulous, apices acute, entire or minutely bifid;
awns 4-8 mm, straight or slightly spreading, arising less than 1.5 mm below the lemma apices;
anthers 2.5-5.2 mm.
= 14.
= 70.
Bromus pubescens
Bromus riparius
Bromus pubescens grows in shaded, moist, often upland deciduous woods. Its range is centered in the eastern half of the United States, and extends northward to southern Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, westward in scattered locations to Arizona, and southward to eastern Texas and western Florida.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Bromus riparius is an Asian species that was introduced to the United States in the late 1950s for cultivation as a pasture grass. Various cultivars are now grown, mainly in Canada and the northwestern United States. The description given here is derived in part from cultivated specimens. North American plants have sometimes been referred to, incorrectly, as Bromus biebersteinii Roem. & Schult. (Vogel et al. 1996). Bromus riparius differs from that species in having acute lemma apices and, usually, more pubescent leaf blades, sheaths, and lemmas.
The existence of Bromus riparius in the Flora region was not realized until shortly before this treatment was submitted for publication, making it impossible to fully investigate its similarities to B. inermis and B. pumpellianus, particularly subsp. dicksonii. It appears to differ from both species in having shorter culms on average, longer awns than B. inermis, and shorter rhizomes than B. pumpellianus subsp. pumpellianus. Its distribution in the Flora region is not known.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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