https://rainforest-save.blogspot.com/2024/06/brompsis-erecta-upright-broome-and.htmlA tallish grass found beside the Leeds Liverpool Canal near Farnhill was suspected to be Hungarian Brome. (It wasn't) - It had leaves coming of the stem quite high up the shoot and had awns about 3mm long. B inermis has awns 0 (-3) mm and B erecta has awns (2-) 3-8 mm.
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| Left- B inermis Right: B erecta |
Bromopsis inermis has long rhizomes with dark red scales. Bromopsis erecta is loosely tufted. The one shoot I pulled up of the plant by the canal path seemed to have a short bit of rhizome 1cm, slightly pinkish, - but I did not want to dig lots of it up. It seemed to be growing in a patch which implies rhizomes. .. but then sometimes one sees what one wants to see.So, two days later I collected specimens of each species which (pretty impressively) both grow within 1/4 mile of my home - the Hungarian Brome by the roadside and the Upright Brome on a track next to the railway. Both situations are ungrazed.
Bromopsis erecta is an abundant plant in the south and east of England. It grows on the Downs and can be a conservation issue if it takes over and outcompetes more delicate plants.
However it is not a native of the Yorkshire Limestone Dales, and the few places I have found it are all places where "It has come in" - e.g. near the railway or near the canal.
The way I recognise B erecta is that it is one of the very few grasses that have the emerging leaf folded, and that is hairy on the shoot somewhere -either along the leaves or along the sheaths. The hairs are quite long on the edge of blades (Say 1mm long) stick out from the blade perpendicular to it and are placed regularly say 1mm apart.
(The other grass that has emerging leaf folded, has hairy sheaths (and the newish you vegetative sheaths can also be a bit reddish/ have reddish stripes) is Avenula (Helictotrichon) pubescens - Downy Oat-grass.
But Downy Oat-grass has very blunt boat-shaped tips to the leaves, whereas the leaves of Bromopsis erecta have a long tapering tip. )
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| B erecta |
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| B inermis |
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| B erecta a few longish hairs. |
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| B erecta scattered long hairs on sheath |
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| B inermis - node and stem with microscopic felty hairs. |
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| B inermis - no hairs, and round sheath. |
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| B inermis |
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| Left- B inermis Right: B erecta |
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| B. erecta See hairs on sheath |
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| B inermis |
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| B erecta: spikelets slightly flattened, awns 4mm |
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| B inermis: spikelets cylindrical , tidier, negligible awns |
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| B inermis |
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| B erecta - pretty picture of anthers |
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| B erecta |
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| B erecta |
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| B inermis |
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| B erecta |
The canal where I found the B erecta
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