MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



flat, spreading or recurved, about 1 

 cm. long. O — Waste places, Mich- 

 igan and North Dakota. Introduced 

 from Europe. 



34. Bromus japonicus Thunb. 

 Japanese chess. (Fig. 33.) Culms 

 erect or geniculate at base, 40 to 70 

 cm. tall; sheaths and blades pilose; 

 panicle 12 to 20 cm. long, broadly 

 pyramidal, diffuse, somewhat droop- 

 ing, the slender lower branches 3 to 5, 

 all the branches more or less flexuous ; 

 glumes rather broad, the first acute, 

 3-nerved, 4 to 6 mm. long, the second 

 obtuse, 5-nerved, 6 to 8 mm. long; 

 lemmas broad, obtuse, smooth, 7 to 9 

 mm. long, 9-nerved, the marginal 

 pair of nerves faint, the hyaline mar- 

 gin obtusely angled above the mid- 

 dle, the apex blunt, emarginate; awn 

 8 to 10 mm. long, usually somewhat 

 twisted and flexuous at maturity, 

 those of the lower florets shorter than FlGURE ^.-Bromus «g«™u«. 



51 



X 1. (Hanes 688, 



Figure 33. — Bromus japonicus, X 1. (Deam 6833, Ind.) 



the upper; palea 1.5 to 2 mm. shorter 

 than the lemma. (B. patulus 

 Mert. and Koch) — Weed in waste 

 places, Vermont to Washington, 

 south to North Carolina and Cali- 

 fornia; Alberta; widely distributed in 

 the Old World, whence introduced. 



Bromus japonicus var. porrectus 

 Hack. Differing only in straight awns. 

 O — New York to Utah and New 

 Mexico infrequent; more common 

 from Maryland to Alabama. In some 



mature panicles both straight and 

 flexuous-divergent awns occur. In B. 

 japonicus before maturity the awns 

 are straight and identity is often un- 

 certain. Specimens of this have been 

 distributed as B. japonicus var. sub- 

 squarrosus. 



35. Bromus arvensis L. (Fig. 34.) 

 Resembling B. japonicus, foliage 

 downy to subglabrous ; spikelets thin- 

 ner, flatter (less turgid), often tinged 

 with purple; lemmas acute, bifid; awn 



