Bromus sterilis L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Poaceae

• Scientific Name

  Bromus sterilis L.

• Description

  Species Description - Annual 4–10 dm, the culm usually glabrous, but the sheaths and blades usually soft-hairy; blades 2–4 mm wide; ligule 1.5–2.5(–3.5) mm; infl relatively long, 1–2 dm, open, the elongate, capillary, often drooping branches mostly bearing only one or 2 spikelets, these mostly 25–31(–36) mm (to 5 cm incl. the awns), 4–8-fld, glabrous to strigose-puberulent; glumes subulate, the first 7–14 mm, 1-veined, the second 9–17 mm, 3-veined; lemmas very narrow, 13–18(–20) mm, 0.8–1.2 mm wide in side-view, 7-veined, the pair of veins nearest the midrib developed only distally, the outermost pair only proximally; awns 18–30 mm; palea almost equaling the lemma; anthers 0.9–1.6 mm; 2n=14, 28. Native of s. Europe, intr. in fields and waste places in much of the U.S., including most of our range.

• Common Names

  barren brome