Pampas Brome

Bromus brevis is an annual to perennial grass with short, stiffly erect narrow, pubescent-leaved tufts, up to 30-75cm. It usually has short panicle inflorescences (8-15cm), born on erect culms. Spikelets are 1-2 cm, ovate-oblong, with light bicoloured yellowish-green florets. Lemmas are 7-9-nerved, with very short, silky, appressed hairs, and are awnless, mucronate, or have short awns (0.5-0.8mm). The distribution of Bromus brevis overlaps entirely with Bromus catharticus. From that species, it can be distinguished by its compact spikelet borne on short pedicels (1.5-5 mm long), on erect panicles. Spikelets are 9-24 mm long, often have awnless or mucronate lemmas, or have awns shorter than 3 mm.

The native range of Bromus brevis in Argentina is in the political provinces Buenos Aires, Chubut, Córdoba, Entre Ríos, La Pampa, Mendoza, Neuquén, Río Negro, San Juan, San Luis, Santa Cruz and Tucumán. These states are found within the Pampean, Monte, and Patagonian biogeographical provinces. B. brevis is also introduced and naturalised to the South Island of New Zealand and the Australian states of New South Wales, Tasmania, and Victoria. It is also listed as adventive in Europe, with records in the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, and Netherlands.

Naturalised area. In New Zealand, the oldest B. brevis record was collected in 1958 in Raggedy Range, Central Otago. It has since been found in Canterbury (near Amberley and Lincoln), and localised in Central Otago. In Australia, B. brevis is found in the Northern, Central, and Southern Tablelands, as well as the North-Western and Central-Western Slopes, and in Eastern Tasmania.

Bromus brevis is an important pasture species in arid and semi arid areas of Argentina, primarily being eaten by cattle. It is a host of the fungi Ustilago bullata and the powdery mildew fungus Blumeria. It is a host of the Russian wheat aphid (Diuraphis noxia) and is eaten by the grasshoppers Dichroplus elongatus and Dichroplus maculipennis.

Being a xeric grass, B. brevis is an important forage and fodder grass in arid and semi-arid regions of Argentina. B. brevis was known as lanku kachu to the Ranquel indigenous people, who ate it raw, or used it to make a flour for thickening meat broth or to make into bread.

Bromus - from the Greek bromos (oat), out of broma (food). brevis - Latin for short, referring to the short culms.