Plants annual. Culms 34-70 cm, erect or ascending, glabrous or puberulent below the panicle. Sheaths densely short-pubescent or glabrous; auricles absent; ligules 1.5-2 mm, glabrous, obtuse, erose; blades 4-20 cm long, 1-5 mm wide, flat, both surfaces pubescent or glabrous. Panicles 3-15 cm long, 2-6 cm wide, open, erect; branches (at least some) 1-3+ cm, ascending to spreading, never drooping, usually visible, with 1 or 2 spikelets. Spikelets 30-50 mm, longer than the panicle branches, not densely crowded, with parallel sides or widening distally, moderately laterally compressed, with 6-10 florets. Glumes pilose, margins hyaline; lower glumes 5-10 mm, 1-veined; upper glumes 10-15 mm, 3-veined; lemmas 12-20 mm, linear-lanceolate, often arcuate, pubescent, with longer hairs near the margins, 5-7-veined, rounded over the midvein, margins hyaline, apices acuminate, teeth 1.5-3 mm; awns 12-23 mm, straight or arcuate, arising 1.5 mm or more below the lemma apices; anthers 0.5-1 mm. 2n = 28.
Bromus madritensis is native to southern and western Europe. It is now established in North America, and grows in disturbed soil, waste places, banks, and road verges in southern Oregon, California, and Arizona.
Common Name: compact brome
Duration: Annual
Nativity: Non-Native
Lifeform: Graminoid
General: Introduced annual solitary or clumped 30-70 cm tall; spikelets have long awns and can be purplish.
Vegetative: Culms 30-70 cm tall, erect or ascending; leaves 4-20 cm long, 1-5 cm wide, pubescent or glabrous, 2-ranked, flat; sheaths generally open, short-pubescent or glabrous; ligules 1-2 mm, glabrous.
Ecology: Found in disturbed soils; flowers May-August.
Distribution: Found in Arizona, Nevada, California, Oregon, Mississippi, Illilois, Michigan, Virginia, and Maryland.
Notes: Native to Europe, but now is widely distributed. Does well in dry conditions.
Ethnobotany: Unknown
Etymology: Bromus is from Greek bromo, for stinking, while madritensis means from Madrid, Spain.
Synonyms: Many, see Tropicos
Editor: LKearsley, 2012
Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems solitary, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem nodes bearded or hairy, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 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 blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf bl ades mostly flat, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Leaf blades more or less hairy, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a contracted panicle, narrowly paniculate, branches appressed or ascending, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence with 2-10 branches, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Spikelet 3-10 mm wide, 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 distinctly unequal, Glumes shorter than adjacent lemma, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline , cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 5-7 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex dentate, 2-fid, Lemma distinctly awned, more than 2-3 mm, Lemma with 1 awn, Lemma awn 1-2 cm long, 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, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear, Caryopsis hairy at apex.
