Red Brome

Nile and Mediterranean regions, Egyptian desert, Res Sea coastal strip, Gebel Elba and Sinai.

Balearic Islands, Corsica, Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, Greece, Crete, Cyprus, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria,Turkey, Iraq, Arabia, Iran.

Sandy and stony soils.

Annual.

Many Chinese gatherings identified as Bromus rubens were misidentified specimens of B. tectorum. The presence of this species in China has not been confirmed.

Annual. Culms tufted, erect or ascending, 15–35 cm tall, pubescent below inflorescence. Leaf sheaths pubescent; leaf blades 5–10 cm × 3–5 mm, both surfaces pubescent. Panicle densely contracted, narrowly elliptic in outline, stiffly erect, 4–7 × ca. 2 cm, often tinged with purple; branches 2–5 mm, much shorter than spikelets, branches and pedicels pubescent. Spikelets 15–25 mm, florets4–9, upper florets sterile, reduced; glumes minutely hairy, keel ciliate, lower glume 7–9 mm, upper glume 10–12 mm; lemmas 12–16 mm, scabrid to pubescent, 2-toothed, apical teeth 4–5 mm, awned from sinus; awn 10–20 mm, scabrid, spreading at maturity; palea shorter than lemma, keels sparsely villous. Stamens (2 or)3, anthers to 2 mm. Fl. May–Jul. 2n = 14, 28.

Xinjiang [Tajikistan, Turkmenistan; N Africa, SW Asia, S Europe; introduced in America and Australia].

Dry slopes; ca. 3900 m.

Anisantha rubens (Linnaeus) Nevski; Bromus madritensis Linnaeus subsp. rubens (Linnaeus) Husnot; B. scoparius Linnaeus var. rubens (Linnaeus) Saint-Amans; Festuca rubens (Linnaeus) Persoon; Zerna rubens (Linnaeus) Grossheim.

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at no des, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly closed, Leaf sheath hairy, hispid or prickly, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet s with 3-7 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets disarticulating above the glumes, glumes persistent, Spikelets disarticulating beneath or between the florets, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes 1 nerved, Glumes 3 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex dentate, 2-fid, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, Lemma awn 2-4 cm long or longer, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma awn from sinus of bifid apex, Lemma awn subapical or dorsal, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea shorter than lemma, Palea longer than lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Palea keels winged, scabrous, or ciliate, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear, Caryopsis hairy at apex.