Bromus tectorum
Scientific Name | Bromus tectorum |
---|---|
Common Names | English: Downy brome; German: Dach-Trespe; French: Brome des toits |
Description | Annual or winter annual weed. |
Gallery

Descriptions
Characteristic Features
Panicles normally dense with conspicuous awns, lemma awned (1,2- 1,8 cm, 0.47 - 0.71 inch).
Young Plant
Much-branched at the base, 20-100 cm (7.87 - 39.37 inch) tall. The youngest leaf is rolled.
Stems
Smooth, slender, erect stems may be branched from the base.
Leaves
Leaves 0,3 to 0,5 cm (0.12 - 0.19 inch) wide, flat, covered with fine, soft hair.
Ligule 1-5 mm (0.039 - 0.19 inch) long, often truncate and fringed.
No auricles.
Sheaths tubular (closed) and covered with fine, soft hairs.
Propagation Organs
Flowers
Head (5 - 20 cm, 1.97 - 7.87 inch) long, much-branched, rather dense, very drooping, often purplish, recurving flexuous branches, often bears several spikelets (2-3,5 cm, 0.78 - 1.37 inch) long, with somewhat shorter awns.
Glumes sparsely pilose.
Lemmas slenderly 5- to 7-nerved, hispid, bearing long beards, lemmas with soft “downy” hairs.
Flowering Period
April-May.
Fruit
Achene-like.
Seeds
Germination occurs in autumn.
Viability of Seeds
2-4 years.
Propagation
By seed.
Occurrence
Habitat
Waste land, road sides and orchards, rangeland in the North American prairie.
Soil
B. tectorum prefers fertile, warm, rather dry, sandy to loamy soils.
Agricultural Importance
Incidence of B. tectorum worldwide in cereal growing areas. Infestation with Downy brome can lead to significant yield losses.
Control
Useful non-chemical contribution to Integrated Weed Management
Moldboard plowing in the fall after winter wheat, optimizing crop competitiveness, crop rotation, e.g. a competitive fall-seeded noncereal crop, such as winter rapeseed or canola. The previously practiced burning of infested field provided valuable control but does not comply with anti-pollution and carbon dioxide avoidance considerations.
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