Bromus tectorum
Common name
cheatgrass
Family
Poaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Grasses
NVS code
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.
BROTEC
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
Etymology
bromus: From the ancient Greek word bromos, referring to a kind of oat
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).