Family |
Poaceae
Bromus tectorum
L.
Bromus tectorum L.
(Sp. Pl.: 77; 1753. — Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, p. 122; 1966)
• Life-form & habit: Annual grass, 5–50 cm tall, green or often reddish. Culms geniculate-ascending or erect, pubescent at nodes.
• Leaves: Sheaths with double pilosity, shortly hispid on a puberulent background. Ligule up to 3 mm, lacerate-fimbriate. Blade flat, puberulent, ciliate-hispid.
• Inflorescence & flowers: Panicle up to 15 cm, unilateral, often nodding, usually rather dense; axis pubescent; branches 3–5 per node, very slender, each with up to 10 spikelets, often pendulous. Spikelets green variegated with shiny white or violaceous, 10 mm long (excluding awns), with 4–9 flowers; rachilla fragile; upper flowers sterile. Glumes unequal, 8 and 12 mm, keeled, acute, scarious on margins. Lemma up to 15 mm, lanceolate, papery, scarious on margins, bifid at apex, with a straight, scabrid awn as long as or longer than lemma body. Variability noted: spikelets villous (var. genuinus G.G.) or glabrous (var. nudus Klett. & Richt.).
• Fruit: Caryopsis as in genus; not described in detail.
• Phenology: Flowers May–July.
• Habitat & elevation: House terraces, sandy places, pastures; common.
• Lebanese distribution: Ct. Bir Hassan, Beirut, Tripoli; Mi. ‘Abey, Mar Roukhos; Mm. Hasroun, Hadeth, Akkar Mts, Ma‘asser, Dahr-el-Baidar, Jabal Sannine; Metn: Zahlé; Hermon: Rachaya.
• Native range: According to POWO: Widespread across Europe, North Africa, Western and Central Asia, Siberia, and introduced widely in North America and elsewhere.