Grasses of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

Hairy Woodland Brome is a native perennial grass, not tufted, with stems that have 5 to 7 nodes that are usually hairy. Stems (culms) are erect and can be 24 to 48 inches tall.

Leaves: Leaf blades are 5 to 13 inches long and up to 5/8 inch wide (15 mm), flat with both surfaces either smooth or hairy.

Sheath throats and collars: Leaf collars can be smooth or hairy, auricles are absent, leaf sheaths are closed with fine retrorse hair. Ligules are very short (0.5-2 mm), obtuse to truncate, but without hair.

The inflorescence is a panicle, up to 10 inches long, of open shape and usually nodding.

Flowers & spikelets: Spikelets are 15 to 30 mm long, somewhat elliptic to lanceolate in shape with 5 to 10 florets. Both lower and upper glumes are veined (1 vein usually on the lower and 3 on the upper), the upper glume longer (5-10 mm) and both usually have fine hair. Lemmas are 8 to 12 mm long, mostly lanceolate in shape, rounded over the midvein, backs and margins usually with hair. Florets have 2 anthers and awns that are straight, 4 to 7 mm long.

Habitat: Hairy Woodland Brome grows in shaded, moist upland forests, fields, roadsides, stream banks and needs shade. Unlike Smooth Brome it does not have rhizomes.

Names: The genus Bromus, is derived from the Greek bromos, referring to oats, as the flowering heads of this genus resemble oats somewhat. The species name pubescens means with soft or downy hair. The author name for the plant classification, 'L.' refers to Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), Swedish botanist and the developer of the binomial nomenclature of modern taxonomy.

Comparisons: Identifying characteristics are the drooping flower panicles, closed leaf sheaths, and the usually hairy stems, stem nodes, leaf sheaths and the glumes which usually have fine hair. There are three species of Bromus in the Garden. See bottom of page for an ID key.