Bromus japonicus Thunb.
Japanese Brome

Habit: 		Winter annual, usually in dense colonies.
Culms: 		Erect or spreading, rather weak, geniculate at base, 40-70 cm. tall.
Blades: 	7-20 cm. long, 3-7 mm. wide, usually densely pubescent, or often velvety, the gray hairs conspicuous.
Sheaths: 	Longer or shorter than the internodes, normally densely and conspicuously pubescent, the hairs mostly
		reflexed.
Ligule: 	Membranous, about 2 mm. long, erose.
Inflorescence: 	Panicle 12-20 cm. long, diffuse, soon drooping to one side, panicle branches flexuous, of
		different lengths, with 1-5 spikelets at their extremities.
Spikelets: 	6-13 flowered, 18-20 mm. long, exclusive of the awns, about 4-5 mm. wide, linear, flattened.
Glumes: 	Unequal, rather broad, the first acute, 3-nerved, 4-6 mm. long, the second broader, 5- or more-nerved,
		6-8 mm. long, obtuse, often emarginate, both slightly scabrous towards the apex.
Lemmas: 	Obtuse, smooth, 7-9 mm. long, 9-nerved (the marginal pair of nerves faint), broader above the base,
		the hyaline margin obtusely angled above the middle, the apex two-toothed, bearing a scabrous awn from
		about 1.5 mm. below the apex, 5-13 mm. long, somewhat twisted or bent and strongly flexuous at maturity,
		those of the lower florets shorter than the upper.
Palea: 		About 1.5-2 mm. shorter than its lemma, obtuse, hispid-ciliate on its 2 keels.
Fruit: 		Grain furrowed, adhering to the palea.
Habitat: 	Weed in waste places, roadsides, thickets, and prairies. May-July.
Kansas Range: 	East half, west to Sheridan county in the north.
Synonyms:	Bromus japonicus Thunb. ex Murr. var. porrectus Hack.
		Bromus patulus Mert. & Koch