Plants perennial; not rhizomatous. Culms 45-120(150) cm, erect; nodes
(3)4-7(8), all pubescent or the lower nodes sometimes glabrous; internodes glabrous. Basal sheaths usually retrorsely
pilose, sometimes glabrous; upper
sheaths glabrous, throats glabrous or pilose, midrib of the culm leaves not
abruptly narrowed just below the collar; auricles
sometimes present; ligules 0.4-1.4
mm, usually glabrous, rarely pilose, truncate, erose; blades 13-25 cm long, 4-10 mm wide, flat, abaxial surfaces usually
glabrous, sometimes pilose, adaxial surfaces usually pilose, sometimes glabrous.
Panicles 10-20 cm, open, nodding; branches ascending, spreading, or
drooping. Spikelets 15-25 mm, elliptic
to lanceolate, terete to moderately laterally compressed, with 4-9 florets. Glumes glabrous; lower glumes 5.5-7.5 mm, 1(3)-veined; upper glumes 7.1-8.5 mm, 3-veined, not mucronate; lemmas 9.5-14 mm, elliptic to
lanceolate, rounded over the midvein, backs glabrous, sometimes scabrous, margins
conspicuously hirsute on the lower 1/2-2/3, apices obtuse to acute, entire; awns 3-5 mm, straight, arising less
than 1.5 mm below the lemma apices; anthers
1-1.4 mm. 2n = 14.
Bromus ciliatus grows in damp meadows, thickets, woods, and stream
banks across almost all of northern North America except the high arctic,
extending further south mainly in the western United States. Some taxonomists
have named plants with different degrees of sheath pubescence as different
forms. Because the variation is continuous, such differences are not formally
recognized in this treatment.
Perennial 6-12 dm, the culms few or even solitary, glabrous, or hairy at the nodes; sheaths pilose or seldom glabrous, often overlapping; blades 4-10 mm wide, glabrous to sparsely villous on one or both sides; ligule 0.3-1(-1.5) mm; infl 1-2 dm, loose and open with slender, often flexuous, drooping or spreading branches to 15 cm; spikelets drooping, 15-25 mm, 4-10- fld; glumes glabrous or at most scabrous to minutely hispid, the first lance-subulate, 5-8 mm, 1-veined (rarely with a faint pair of lateral veins), the second lanceolate, 7-10 mm, 3-veined, often short-awned; lemmas 10-13 mm, rather long-hairy near the margins, especially toward the base, glabrous or nearly so on the back; awns 3-5 mm; anthers 0.9-1.7 mm; 2n=14, 28, 56. Moist woods and other wet places; Lab. and Nf. to Alas., s. to Pa. (and in the mts. to Tenn.), Mo., and Tex. (B. dudleyi)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.