BROMUS Brome Grass 



Plants often single or few stemmed; inflorescence frequently nodding; 

 spikelets large with lemmas usually awed; leaves with broad flat blades, 

 sheaths mostly closed. Native and introduced grasses of wide distribution 

 and one important forage grass, B. inermis. 



A. Perennials. 



B. Lower glumes with 3 prominent nerves; upper glumes with 5 



prominent nerves B. kalmii 



B. Lower glumes with 1 prominent nerve; upper glumes with 3 

 prominent nerves. 



C. Inflorescence with ascending or occasionally diverging 

 branches; lemmas awnless or with awns up to 2.5 (-3.0) mm. 



Mostly cultivated fields B. inermis 



C. Inflorescence with branches diverging to flexuous, drooping at 

 maturity; lemmas with awns 3 mm or longer, or longer. 

 D. Margins of lemmas pilose up to at least the middle, backs 



glabrous. Common B. ciliatus 



D. Margins of lemmas pilose only at base, backs pubescent or 

 less frequently glabrous. 



E. Sheaths overlapping with 2 cartilaginous auricles at 

 summit; sheaths of upper leaves longer than 



internodes, covering the nodes B. latiglumis 



E. Sheaths open, V-shaped, auricles lacking at summit; 

 sheaths of upper leaves shorter than internodes, 



exposing the nodes B. pubescens 



A. Annuals; uncommon introduced weeds of fields or waste places. 



F. Lower glume with 1 prominent nerve; 2nd glume with 3 prominent 



nerves B. tectorum 



F. Lower glume with 3 prominent nerves; 2nd glume with 5-9 nerves 



G. Pedicels shorter than spikelets B. mollis 



G. Pedicels as long as or longer than spikelets 



H. Sheaths glabrous; awns short or lacking, 0-6 mm long 



B. secalinus 



H. Sheaths pubescent; awns longer, 3-12 mm long 



I. Branches of panicle erect or ascending... B. racemosus 

 I. Branches of panicle flexuous, slightly spreading 



B. japonicus 



1. B. latiglumis (Shear) Hitchc. (figure 1) Brome Grass 



Prennial. Grass of alluvial thickets. Frequent along the Connecticut 



River Valley; occasional along the Merrimack River Valley. 



The name B. piirgans has been applied to this taxon by Wagnon 



(1950), however, Voss (1972) rejects this name as a nomen confusum. 



and the name has been formally proposed for rejection under the 



revised Article 69 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature 



following the Lenningrad Congress (McNeill, 1976). 



