48 



WEED FLORA OF IOWA 



NATURAL CONDITION 



WATER FREE SUBSTANCE 



This grass is very nutritious in its young condition. The protein 

 varies from 2.14 per cent to 4.19 per cent, but there is a seeming 

 variation with different plants found under different conditions. 



Chess, Cheat (Bromns secalinus L.). 



Description. — An erect annual, 2-:} ft. high; culms smooth or 

 pubescent at the nodes; sheaths striate smooth, scabrous or some- 

 times pilose; ligule short, blunt; leaf-blade 6-12 in. long, rather 

 broadly linear, smooth beneath, more or less rough and pilose on 

 the upper surface: panicle 4-8 in. long, erect, the more or less com- 

 pound branches, spreading, even in fruits; spikelets 6-10 lines long, 

 oblong ovate, turgid, 6-12-flowered, pendulous in fruit, empty 

 glumes oblong lanceolate, acute, the first 3-5, the second 7-nerved; 

 flowering glumes ovate-oblong, obscurely 7-nerved, smooth or mi- 

 nutely downy along the margins and toward the apex, becoming 

 nearly cylindrical in fruit ; palea obtuse, strongly nerved ; nerves 

 toothed or fringed with distant bristles. 



Distribution. — Common wherever wheat is cultivated and some- 

 times in waste places, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. At one time 

 common in many parts of Iowa, but now occurring sparingly ex- 

 cept where wheat is cultivated. 



Extermination. — Use clean seed and sow in clean soil. The weed 

 succumbs readily to cultivation. 



Chemical Composition. — The common Bromus secalinus analyzed 

 at the Iowa station by Weems shows the following analysis. 



