Grasses List
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Grasses List
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Grasses Family [Poaceae] 
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_2018_05_18_Waterloo_Blundellsands_train_Freshfield_Hightown_023p12.jpg)
| 18th May 2018, Waterloo, Sefton Coast | Photo: © RWD |
| This is one of the commonest grasses and spreads like a weed. |
_2018_05_18_Waterloo_Blundellsands_train_Freshfield_Hightown_054p88.jpg)
| 18th May 2018, Waterloo, Sefton Coast | Photo: © RWD |
| It grows to 80cm high and the spikelets droop downwards at 'maturity'. |
_2018_05_18_Waterloo_Blundellsands_train_Freshfield_Hightown_007p4.jpg)
| 18th May 2018, Waterloo, Sefton Coast | Photo: © RWD |
| The spikelets are long and very narrow. The very narrow stalks leading up to them are usually much longer than the spikelets themselves. |
[Grass]_2016_05_13_Freshfields_FormbyDunes_Hightown_354p93.jpg)
| 18th May 2018, Waterloo, Sefton Coast | Photo: © RWD |
[Grass]_2016_05_13_Freshfields_FormbyDunes_Hightown_354p88.jpg)
| 18th May 2018, Waterloo, Sefton Coast | Photo: © RWD |
| The thin awns (the long thin purple spikes) at the end can be very long (15 to 35mm). The spikelets are thin because they are barren, as the common name suggests, meaning sterile, unable to reproduce sexually as the botanical name says (but they can spread vegetatively and are doing so in this location). However, another source confirms that the leaves and the leaf-sheaths are abundantly hairy on Barren Brome. Panic over! |
[Grass]_2016_05_13_Freshfields_FormbyDunes_Hightown_354NodesLeft.jpg)
| 18th May 2018, Waterloo, Sefton Coast | Photo: © RWD |
| Two upper parts of leaves on the left. |
_2018_05_18_Waterloo_Blundellsands_train_Freshfield_Hightown_016p7.jpg)
| 18th May 2018, Waterloo, Sefton Coast | Photo: © RWD |
| The lemmas (to which the long awms are attached) are between 13 and 20mm long (best seen in the central spikelet - the one with open 'jaws'. |
_2018_05_18_Waterloo_Blundellsands_train_Freshfield_Hightown_011p3.jpg)
| 18th May 2018, Waterloo, Sefton Coast | Photo: © RWD |
Somewhat strangely, your Author cannot find any other photos of Barren Broom having very long hairs on the edges of a leaf. [He can, however, find photos of the similar Great Brome(Anisantha diandra) with many hairs on the leaves, but the hairs are also much denser than here and also occur almost all over the plant]. |
[Grass]_2016_05_13_Freshfields_FormbyDunes_Hightown_352p79.jpg)
| 18th May 2018, Waterloo, Sefton Coast | Photo: © RWD |
| Most (all?) Bromes seem have stens which are slightly ribbed/grooved. The ligule (the papery white sheath seen emerging slightly at the junction of a leaf with the stem) is pointedly toothed and between 2 and 4mm long. |
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Easily confused with : Not to be semantically confused with Broom (Cytisus scoparius) a bushy and much taller plant with yellow flowers. An archaeophyte which is grown on waste or rough ground, waysides and open grassland. It is a weed of grardens and arable land. Occurs throughout lowlands of the British Isles and is more common in central and southern Britain.
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 Anisantha
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sterilis
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⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ |
Poaceae
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 Anisantha (Bromes) |
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Grasses Family [Poaceae]
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