Flora of New Zealand Series

stripey brome

Light green, rather slender, perennial tufts, 40-90 cm, with drooping panicles bearing noticeably bicoloured cream and green spikelets. Lower leaf-sheaths rounded, upper sheaths obviously keeled above, very densely villous. Ligule 1.5-2 mm, denticulate, abaxially often with long hairs near base and margins, or scabrid. Leaf-blade 12-22 cm × 3-7 mm, with ± scattered, fine, soft, straight hairs; margins very finely scabrid, tip subobtuse. Culm geniculate at base to erect, internodes glabrous, but slightly pubescent just below nodes. Panicle 12-30 cm, nodding, with slender, finely scabrid branches. Spikelets 1.5-3.5 cm, 5-9-flowered, elliptic-lanceolate to ± oblong, pale cream with noticeably green-tipped lemmas. Glumes very unequal, acute or subacute, with very short, appressed, silvery hairs, hyaline margins minutely scabrid; lower 4-4.5 mm, 3-(5)-nerved, elliptic-lanceolate, upper 6-6.5 mm, 7-nerved, more broadly ovate-lanceolate. Lemma 9.5-10 mm, 7-9-nerved, keeled, very shortly appressed-pubescent throughout, later papillose on basal cream to yellowish green portion, brighter green above, upper ⅓ of nerves reddish or bordered with green, margins and awn often reddish-tinged; awn 4.5-5 mm. Palea ≥ lemma. Callus with extremely minute hairs. Rachilla extremely minutely appressed-pubescent. Anthers 0.7 mm in cleistogamous flowers. Caryopsis 5.8-6.4 × 1.1-1.4 mm.

N.: Cuvier Id, The Noises, Auckland City (two early collections), scattered in South Auckland, Wanganui, Wellington (Ward Id); S.: Marlborough (near Blenheim), Canterbury (Christchurch); Ch. Roadsides, grassland, and garden weed.

Naturalised from South America.

This sp. was listed by Healy, A. J. Standard Common Names for Weeds in New Zealand, ed. 2, 134 (1984), as B. coloratus Steud.

Bromus valdivianus was collected by D. Petrie at Mt Eden, Auckland in 1910 and 1914 (WELT 71003, WELT 71007a,b), probably from Petrie's garden.