Poaceae
Grass Family
Bromus kalmii Gray
- Stem: perennial; 2 1/2’ to 3’ tall; smooth with hairy joints.
- Leaves: sheath closed, hairy, more hairy at the top of the sheath; blade 6” by 1/4” and longer, long-hairy below and on the margins.
- Inflorescence: narrow, branched, 3” to 4” long; with a weak drooping stalk; fifteen to twenty spikelets per inflorescence.
- Spikelets: 3/4” long, ten to twelve florets; glumes and lemmas densely hairy, lemmas awned; flowering from mid- to late June.
- Fruits: mature florets falling from the glumes; fruiting begins in early July.
- Habitat: very uncommon on upland to dry prairies and in open woods.
- Notes:
Bromus is the only grass genus described in this book that has leaf sheaths where the margins grow together (closed), a characteristic found in the sedges. All other genera have sheath margins that overlap.
Smooth brome, B. inermis Leysser, an introduced pasture grass, is very common on roadsides and in other open places. It forms dense sods rather than tufts and is not hairy on the leaves or spikelets.
- Bibliography from Biodiversity Heritage Library
- Vascular Plants of Iowa
