Bromus tectorum |
Bromus vulgaris |
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cheat brome, cheat grass, downy brome, downy chess, drooping brome |
Columbia brome, Columbian brome, common brome |
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Habit | Plants annual. | Plants perennial; not rhizomatous. |
Culms | 5-90 cm, erect, slender, puberulent below the panicle. |
60-120 cm, erect or spreading; nodes (3)4-6(7), usually pilose; internodes glabrous. |
Sheaths | 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. |
pilose or glabrous; auricles absent; ligules 2-6 mm, glabrous, obtuse or truncate, erose or lacerate; blades 13-25(33) cm long, to 14 mm wide, flat, abaxial surfaces usually glabrous, sometimes pilose, adaxial surfaces usually pilose, sometimes glabrous. |
Panicles | 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. |
10-15 cm, open; branches ascending to drooping. |
Spikelets | 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. |
15-30 mm, elliptic to lanceolate, terete to moderately laterally compressed, with (3)4-9 florets. |
Glumes | 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 or pilose; lower glumes 5-8 mm, 1(3)-veined; upper glumes 8-12 mm, 3-veined; lemmas 8-15 mm, lanceolate, rounded over the midvein, backs sparsely hairy or glabrous, margins usually coarsely pubescent, sometimes glabrous, apices subulate to acute, entire; awns (4)6-12 mm, straight, arising less than 1.5 mm below the lemma apices; anthers 2-4 mm. |
2n | = 14. |
= 14. |
Bromus tectorum |
Bromus vulgaris |
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Distribution |
AK; AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; HI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NS; NT; ON; QC; SK; YT; Greenland
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CA; ID; MT; NV; OR; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC
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Discussion | 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 vulgaris grows in shaded or partially shaded, often damp, coniferous forests along the coast, and inland in montane pine, spruce, fir, and aspen forests, from sea level to about 2000 m. Its range extends from coastal British Columbia eastward to southwestern Alberta and southward to central California, northern Utah, and western Wyoming. Varieties have been described within Bromus vulgaris; because their variation is overlapping, none are recognized here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 24, p. 226. | FNA vol. 24, p. 216. |
Parent taxa | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Bromeae > Bromus > sect. Genea | Poaceae > subfam. Pooideae > tribe Bromeae > Bromus > sect. Bromopsis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | B. tectorum var. nudus, B. tectorum var. glabratus, Anisantha tectorum | B. ciliatus var. glaberrimus |
Name authority | L. | (Hook.) Shear |
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