Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Bromus purgans L.
- Family: Grass (Gramineae)
- Flowering: June-September
- Field Marks: This native, perennial species of brome differs by its drooping panicles and its 10-20 leaves on the stem.
- Habitat: Moist, open woods, thickets.
- Habit: Perennial with slender rhizomes.
- Stems: Upright, to 5 feet tall, with 10-20 leaves.
- Leaves: Elongated, flat, 1/4-3/4 inch wide, smooth or sparsely hairy, with short-hairy or smooth sheaths.
- Flowers: Borne in spikelets in a panicle on drooping branches; spikelets 3- to 8-flowered, 3/4-1 3/4 inches long; glumes slender pointed; lemmas smooth or with silky hairs at base, each with an awn up to 1/3 inch long.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, smooth.
- Fruits: Oblongoid, smooth.
- Notes: Gleason and Cronquist call this species B. pubescens in the Poaceae.
Previous Species -- Earleaf Brome (Bromus latiglumis)
Return to Species List -- Group 2
Next Species -- Nuttall's Small-reedgrass (Calamagrostis cinnoides)
