|
Bromus L. Brome
Plants hermaphroditic, caespitose or rhizomatous, annual or perennial. Culms erect or ascending or
decumbent or geniculate, glabrous or pubescent or hairy; internodes hollow, terete. Leaves basal and cauline, not
distichous; sheaths terete, margins connate; auricles absent; ligules membranous; blades flat, lax. Panicles or
rarely racemes open or narrow or contracted; primary branches spreading or ascending or appressed. Spikelets
solitary, terete or laterally compressed; disarticulation above the glumes; awned or awnless, pedicellate; florets 3-
20, reduced floret at apex, callus glabrous; glumes 2, 1-5-veined, unequal, shorter than first floret, glabrous or
pubescent, awnless; lemmas 5-13-veined (not distinct), membranous or subcoriaceous, glabrous to hairy, bifid or
entire (rarely), awnless or more frequently 1-awned from between lobes or teeth of a bifid apex, awns straight or
divergent or wavy; paleas 2-veined, adnate or not adnate to caryopses, awnless, ciliate. Stamens 1-3; anthers
yellow. Caryopses laterally compressed with tuft of hair at apex. Base chromosome number x=7.
A genus of about 100 species generally from temperate regions of the world. Bromes are important
livestock forages. Some taxa are introduced weeds from Europe e.g. B. catharticus, B. diandrus, B. hordeaceus,
B. japonicus, B. tectorum etc. Other species are introduced pasture species e.g. B. inermis. This genus is
taxonomically difficult.
|
