Hairy Brome

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / spot causer
black, globose then elongated pycnidium of Stagonospora coelomycetous anamorph of Stagonospora bromi causes spots on fading leaf of Bromus ramosus
Remarks: season: 8

Bromus ramosus is closely related to B. benekenii, but they hybridize only very rarely.

Wood Brome is a very widespread species in Europe and Asia and is morphologically rather variable. In Europe and the more northerly parts of Asia it intergrades with Bromus benekenii (Lange) Trimen from which it differs in its open (not contracted) panicle, hairy (rather than glabrous) upper leaf-sheaths and the ciliate (not glabrous) scale at the base of the lowest panicle branch. A number of specimens in Pakistan very closely approach Bromus benekenii. Bromus sipyleus Boiss., a species, from Asia Minor, is similar to Bromus ramosus, differing mainly by its glabrous spikelets; the species is not very well known and may account for a number of a typical specimens of Bromus ramosus that are found throughout Asia. Much work still needs to be done on this part of Bromus.

Although the holotype of Bromus chitralens is was not available for study, three of the six collections cited in Flora Iranica were seen and there is no evidence that this species is substantially different from Bromus ramosus.

Perennial. Culms loosely tufted, erect, 60–150 cm tall, ca. 6 mm in diam., 7–8-noded; densely and shortly pubescent. Leaf sheaths pubescent with reflexed 1–2 mm hairs, narrow auricles present at mouth; leaf blades soft, 10–40 cm × 7–15 mm, scattered pubescent; ligule ca. 2 mm, glabrous. Panicle 15–40 cm, broad, loosely nodding; branches 2 per node, up to 20 cm, each bearing 2–9 spikelets, lowermost branches with ciliate bracts at base. Spikelets elliptic-oblong, 20–30 × 4–6 mm, florets 4–10; lower glume subulate, 6–8 mm, 1-veined, upper glume lanceolate, 9–11 mm, 3-veined, apex mucronate or shortly awned; lemmas lanceolate, 10–13 mm, 7-veined, veins and margins pubescent; awn 5–8 mm, straight; palea conspicuously shorter than lemma, keels minutely ciliate. Anthers 2–3 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug. x = 21; 2n = 42.

Laxly caespitose perennial; culms 40-190 cm high. Leaf-blades up to 60 cm long, 6-15 mm wide, flat, sparsely hairy, the lower wider than the upper; sheaths pubescent with long, rigid, retrorse hairs. Panicle 15-40 cm long, very wide and lax, nodding, the lowest branch with a ciliate scale at the base, the pedicels 5-30 mm long. Spikelets narrowly oblong, laxly 4-12-flowered, 20-40 mm long, green or rarely purplish; lower glume subulate, 6-8 mm long, 1-nerved; upper glume lanceolate, 9-11 mm long, 3-nerved, mucronate or shortly awned; lemmas lanceolate with obscurely angled margins, the lower 10-13 mm long, 7-nerved, hairy on the margins and nerves, awned; awn straight, 4-7 mm long; palea distinctly shorter than the lemma, shortly ciliolate on the keels; anthers 1.5-3.5(-4) mm long.

Xizang (Yadong) [Kashmir, Pakistan; N Africa, SW Asia, Europe].

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab, N.W.F.P. & Kashmir); Europe; western and Central Asia.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: June-August.

Thickets in forested areas, roadsides, grassy places; 2900–3500 m.

Bromopsis ramosa (Hudson) Holub; Bromus asper Murray; Forasaccus asper (Murray) Bubani; Zerna aspera (Murray) Panzer; Z. ramosa (Hudson) Lindman.

Perennials, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, 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 with inflorescence 1-2 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 blade auriculate, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blades 1-2 cm wide, Leaf blades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Leaf blades scabrous, roughened, or wrinkled, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence lax, widely spreading, branches drooping, pendulous, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets with 8-40 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 s horter than adjacent lemma, Glumes 1 nerved, Glumes 3 nerved, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn less than 1 cm long, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, Lemma awned from tip, Lemma awn subapical or dorsal, Lemma awns straight or curved to base, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea shorter 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.

Bromus ramosus, the hairy brome, is a bunchgrass in the grass family Poaceae, native to Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia. The name Bromus comes from the term brome, meaning oats. Unlike most other bromes (Bromus sp.), it grows in shady sites under trees.