Bromus scoparius

L.
Common names: Broom brome
Introduced
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 24. Treatment on page 235.
Please click on the illustration for a higher resolution version.
Illustrator: Cindy Roché

Copyright: Utah State University

Plants annual. Culms (9)20-40 cm, erect or ascending. Sheaths sparsely pubescent or glabrous; ligules 0.8-1.5 mm, glabrous or hairy, obtuse; blades 5-20 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, abaxial surfaces glabrous, adaxial surfaces pilose. Panicles 2-7 cm long, 1-4 cm wide, erect, dense, obovoid, wedge-shaped at the base, sometimes interrupted; branches shorter than the spikelets, erect, straight or almost so, sometimes verticillate. Spikelets 12-25 mm, lanceolate, crowded, terete to moderately laterally compressed; florets 5-10, bases concealed at maturity; rachilla internodes concealed at maturity. Glumes scabrous to pubescent; lower glumes 3-4 mm, 3-5-veined; upper glumes 5-7 mm, 5-7-veined; lemmas 7-10 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, lanceolate, glabrous, obscurely 7-veined, rounded over the midvein, margins rounded, not inrolled at maturity, apices sharply acute, bifid, teeth shorter than 1 mm; awns 7-10 mm, flattened at the base, divaricate or recurved when mature, arising 1.5 mm or more below the lemma apices; anthers 0.3-0.5 mm. Caryopses shorter than the paleas, thin, weakly inrolled or flat. 2n = 14.

Discussion

Bromus scoparius is native to southern Europe. It grows in waste places. In the Flora region, it has been recorded from Californica and New York.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.