Species

Bromus tectorum

Etymology

Bromus: From the ancient Greek word bromos, referring to a kind of oat

Common Name(s)

cheatgrass

Authority

Bromus tectorum L.

Family

Poaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

NVS Species Code

BROTEC

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Grasses

Habitat

Terrestrial.

Features

Small, green to bluish-green, annual grass to 20- 90 cm tall. All parts softly hairy. Stems slender, erect or spreading. Leaves 30-160 x 2-4 mm, flat, velvety; emerging leaf rolled; sheath tubular, soon splitting, usually with purplish tinge. Ligule 2-5 mm long, membranous, frayed, whitish. Seeding stem to 1 m long, drooping to one side; panicle dense, soft, usually purplish. Seed spikelets narrow, 20-35 mm long (incl awns 10-17 mm), 2-3 mm wide. Seeds narrow, Spring-Summer.

Similar Taxa

Shorter than B. mollis, and has taller narrower spikelets.

Flowering

April, May

Fruiting

May June

Year Naturalised

1870

Origin

Mediterranean, Europe, N Asia

Reason For Introduction
Agricultural

Life Cycle Comments
Annual

Seed
Seeds long and narrow, bearing long beard 12 to 19 mm. (Wax, Fawcett, Isley eds. 1981).

This page last updated on 18 Feb 2010