Bromus tectorum
Bromus inermis
cheat brome, cheat grass, downy brome, downy chess, drooping brome
brome inerme, Hungarian brome, smooth brome
5-90 cm, erect, slender, puberulent below the panicle.
50-130 cm, erect, single or a few together;
nodes (2)3-5(6), usually glabrous, rarely pubescent;
internodes usually glabrous, rarely pubescent.
usually densely and softly retrorsely pubescent to pilose, upper sheaths sometimes glabrous;
auricles absent;
ligules 2-3 mm, glabrous, obtuse, lacerate;
blades to 16 cm long, 1-6 mm wide, both surfaces softly hairy.
usually glabrous, rarely pubescent or pilose;
auricles sometimes present;
ligules to 3 mm, glabrous, truncate, erose;
blades 11-35(42) cm long, 5-15 mm wide, flat, usually glabrous, rarely pubescent or pilose.
5-20 cm long, 3-8 cm wide, open, lax, drooping distally, usually 1-sided;
branches 1-4 cm, drooping, usually 1-sided and longer than the spikelets, usually at least 1 branch with 4-8 spikelets.
10-20 cm, open, erect;
branches ascending or spreading.
10-20 mm, usually shorter than the panicle branches, sides parallel or diverging distally, moderately laterally compressed, often purplish-tinged, not densely crowded, with 4-8 florets.
20-40 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, terete to moderately laterally compressed, sometimes purplish, with (5)8-10 florets.
villous, pubescent, or glabrous, margins hyaline;
lower glumes 4-9 mm, 1-veined;
upper glumes 7-13 mm, 3-5-veined;
lemmas 9-12 mm, lanceolate, glabrous or pubescent to pilose, 5-7-veined, rounded over the midvein, margins hyaline, often with some hairs longer than those on the backs, apices acuminate, hyaline, bifid, teeth 0.8-2(3) mm;
awns 10-18 mm, straight, arising 1.5 mm or more below the lemma apices;
anthers 0.5-1 mm.
glabrous;
lower glumes (4)6-8(9) mm, 1(3)-veined;
upper glumes (5)7-10 mm, 3-veined;
lemmas 9-13 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, rounded over the midvein, usually glabrous and smooth, sometimes scabrous, margins sometimes sparsely puberulent, the basal part of the backs less frequently so, apices acute to obtuse, entire;
awns absent or to 3 mm, straight, arising less than 1.5 mm below the lemma apices;
anthers 3.5-6 mm.
= 14.
= 28, 56.
Bromus tectorum
Bromus inermis
Bromus tectorum is a European species that is well established in the Flora region and other parts of the world. It grows in disturbed sites, such as overgrazed rangelands, fields, sand dunes, road verges, and waste places. In the southwestern United States, Bromus tectorum is considered a good source of spring feed for cattle, at least until the awns mature. It is highly competitive and dominates rapidly after fire, especially in sagebrush areas. The resulting dense, fine fuels permanently shorten the fire-return interval, further hindering reestablishment of native species. It now dominates large areas of the sagebrush ecosystem of the western Flora region.
Specimens with glabrous spikelets have been called Bromus tectorum f. nudus (Klett & Richt.) H. St. John. They occur throughout the range of the species, and are not known to have any other distinguishing characteristics. For this reason, they are not given formal recognition in this treatment.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Bromus inermis is native to Eurasia, and is now found in disturbed sites in Alaska, Greenland, and most of Canada as well as south throughout most of the contiguous United States except the southeast. It has also been used for rehabilitation, and is planted extensively for forage in pastures and rangelands from Alaska and the Yukon Territory toTexas.
Bromus inermis is similar to B. pumpellianus, differing mainly in having glabrous lemmas, nodes, and leaf blades, but lack of pubescence is not a consistently reliable distinguishing character. Bromus inermis also resembles a recently introduced species, B. riparius, from which it differs primarily in its shorter or nonexistent awns.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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WildflowerSearch
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- Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA
- Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, Go Botany, IL Wildflowers, KS Wildflowers, LA Plants, MD Biodiversity, MI Flora, MN Wildflowers, MO Plants, PNW Herbaria
- WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
