Compilation
Bromus catharticus

71 Images see all

Previous
Next

Name

Identification
Bromus catharticus Vahl [family POACEAE ]
Related name
  • Bromus catharticus

Flora

Entry for BROMUS unioloïdes Kunth [family ]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, Part (Part 1), page 1, (1970) Author: W. D. Clayton
Names
BROMUS unioloïdes Kunth [family ], in Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 151 (1815); R.K.G.: 14 (1958); I.G.U.: 20 (1960); G.T.: 15 (1965). Type: Ecuador, Quito, Humbold & Bonpland (P, holo., US, klasto.!)
Festuca unioloïdes Willd. [family POACEAE], Hort. Berol. 1: 3 (1803). Type: cultivated at Berlin, seed from Carolina (B, holo.)
Bromus unioloïdes (Willd.) Rasp. [family ], in Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. 5: 439 (1825), non Kunth (1815)
Bromus willdenowii Kunth [family ], Rev. Gram. 1: 134 (1829). Based on Festuca unioloïdes Willd.
Bromus catharticus Vahl [family ], Symb. Bot. 2: 22 (1791), nom. confus. See Parodi in Rev. Arg. Agron. 23: 115 (1956) and C. E. Hubbard in Fl. Lusit. Comm. 9: 7 (1956)
Information
Short-lived perennial tussock grass; culms ± 1 m. high, erect or geniculately ascending. Leaf-blades up to 30 cm. long and 8 mm. wide; sheaths glabrous or pubescent. Panicle oblong, 10–40 cm. long, loose. Spikelets 6–12-flowered, 16–40 mm. long, strongly laterally compressed, the lemmas closely overlapping and concealing the short internodes; glumes narrowly lanceolate in side view, the lower 10–15 mm. long, a little shorter than the upper, acuminate; lemmas narrowly lanceolate in side view, the lower 15–20 mm. long, laterally flattened and sharply keeled, herbaceous with hyaline margins, 9–13-nerved, scaberulous on the nerves, minutely bidentate with an awn-point up to 3 mm. long from between the teeth; callus broadly rounded; palea two-thirds as long as the lemma, ciliolate on the keels. Fig. 23/14, p. 69.
Range
DISTR. U2; K3, 4; T2, 3 a South American species, widely introduced as a winter forage species under the name “rescue grass”, and now found as an escape in most temperate countries
Altitude range
2300–2700 m.
Distribution
KENYA Uasin Gishu District Ol Dane Sapuk, 4 May 1951, G. R. Williams 156!KENYA Kiambu District Kinari Forest, Magina, 9 Sept. 1961, Greenway 10399! & Muguga, Greenhill Estate, 13 Oct. 1959, Greenway 9574!TANGANYIKA Moshi District Ngoja Farm, Musomi in E.A.H. 13823!TANGANYIKA Lushoto District Kwesimu, 20 Sept. 1959, Semsei 2909!UGANDA Kigezi District 8 km. E. of Kabale, 29 May 1956, Harker 511!
Notes
Raven, in Brittonia 12: 219 (1960), separates B. unioloïdes Kunth from the common “rescue grass”, whose name then becomes B. willdenowii. However these are but two segregates from a South American complex whose taxonomy has not been worked out, and I have continued to use the name in a wide sense (see also Soderstrom in Publ. Mus., Michigan State Univ., Biol. 3: 487 (1968)).

Related Materials