GRASSES OF IOWA. 308 



14. BROMUS SECALINUS. 



B ramus secalinus L. Sp. PI. 76. 1753. Watson and Coulter. Gray. 

 Mai. Bot. 670. pi. 10.1890. (6 ed.) Scribner. Grasses of Tenn. Bull. 

 Univ. Tenn. Agrl. Exp. Sta. 7: 119 f. 170. 1894. Beal. Grasses of N. A. 

 2:625. 1896. Nash in Britton and Brown. 111. PI. 1: 222. /. 514. 1896. 

 Scribner. Bull. U. S. Dept. Agrl. Div. Agros. 7: 297. /. 291. 1900. (3 ed.) 



Serrafalcus secalinus Bab. Man. Brit. Bot. 374. 1843. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Chess, Cheat. An erect annual, 2 to 3 feet (5-8 dm.) high 

 Culms smooth or pubescent at the nodes. Sheaths striate, smooth, sca- 

 brous or sometimes pilose; ligule short, blunt; leaf-blade 6 to 12 inches 

 (12-24 cm -) l°ng, rather broadly linear, smooth beneath, more or less 

 rough and pilose on the upper surface. Panicle 4 to 8 inches (8-16 cm.) 

 King, erect, the more or less compound branches, spreading, even in fruit. 

 Spikelets 6 to 10 lines (12-29 mm.) long, oblong-ovate, turgid, six to 

 twelve-flowered, pendulous in fruit; empty glume, oblong-lanceolate, 

 acute, the first three to five, the second seven-nerved ; flowering glumes 

 ovate-oblong, obscurely seven-nerved, smooth or minutely downy along 

 the margins and toward the apex, becoming nearly cylindrical in fruit. 

 Palea obtuse, strongly nerved ; nerves toothed or fringed with distant 

 bristles. Naturalized in cultivated and waste grounds. July-August. 



A well known weed of grain fields, occurs in all sections of Iowa, 

 but especially in the winter wheat sections. See figure 213, on page 302. 



DISTRIBUTION'. 



Iowa. Ames (Pammel, Carver, Chas. Wilson, Preston, Stewart, 

 Weaver, Beardslee, Hitchcock, Sirrine, 150 Ball; see Shear, Bull. U. 

 S .Dept. Agrl. Div. Agros. 23:17); Muscatine (Reppert) ; Durant, 

 1144 (Weaver) ; Minerva 9 (Ball; see Shear, Bull. U. S. Dept. Agrl. 

 Div. Agros. 23:17) ; Johnson County, New Market (see Shear, Bull. 

 U. S. Dept. Agrl. Div. Agros. 23:17) ; Cedar Rapids (Shimek) ; Mt. 

 Pleasant 858 (Mills) ; Greenfield (Stewart) ; Tipton (Hitchcock) ; 

 Iowa City (Hitchcock) ; Sioux City (Miss Wakefield) ; Decatur 

 County, Johnson County (Fitzpatrick) ; Van Cleve (Warden) ; Alden 

 (Stevens) ; Pittsburg, Unionville (Pammel) ; Johnson County (Fitz- 

 patrick). 



North America. New York (Parry), Ohio (Horr), Missouri (St. 

 Louis and Washington, Pammel; Kansas City, Forsee), Colorado (G. 

 W. Letterman), Utah (Ogden 34, Pammel), Montana (Bozeman, 

 Shear 453). 



