Plants of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument - NPS Inventory ...

Poaceae
Graminoids
Avena fatua
wild oat
General: Introduced, erect, tufted annual with usually smooth, thick but
weak culms 30–120 cm tall. Vegetative: Blades thin, flat with sparsely villous
margins, 5–12 mm wide, 10–30 cm long; sheath open, collar margins sparsely
villous. Ligule membranous, 2–5.5 mm long, obtuse to acute and toothed.
Inflorescence: Panicle large with spreading and curving branches and pedicels.
Glumes glabrous, 2–3 cm long. Lemmas pubescent and rounded on back, firm;
lowest lemma 1.5–2 cm long with a stout, twisted and geniculate awn that is
2.5–4 cm long. Ecology: Weed of roadsides, fields, and waste places; flowers
March–July. Notes: Tall annual with a large panicle containing drooping
spikelets, lemmas with geniculate awns that
are 2.5–4 cm long. Host plant for Common
Wood–nymph butterfly. Ethnobotany:
The seeds were parched, ground into flour,
boiled, pounded, eaten dry, as mush, pinole,
and stored for later use. Etymology: Avena
is Latin for oats, while fatua means foolish,
insipid, or worthless. Synonyms: Avena
fatua var. glabrata, A. fatua var. vilis
40
Bromus carinatus
Impact risk level
H M L
California brome
General: Tufted perennial with culms mostly 40–80
cm tall. Vegetative: Blades flat, glabrous or sparsely
pilose, mostly 4–8 mm broad, 1–30 cm long; closed
sheaths, to within a few centimeters of the ligule,
throats usually hairy; ligule membranous, glabrous
or sparsely hairy, acute or obtuse, lacerate, 2.5–4 mm
long. Inflorescence: Panicle generally 12–30 cm long,
lax, open to erect with long spreading branches, lower
branches shorter than 10 cm, 1–4 per node, ascending
to strongly divergent or reflexed, with 1–4 spikelets
variously distributed; glumes large but shorter than
lowermost lemma, glabrous to pubescent, unequal to nearly equal in length,
first glume three–nerved, second broader, five to seven nerved; lemma
glabrous or scabrous, strongly keeled distally, uniformly pubescent on margins,
10–16 mm long, with awn one–half to one–third as long, sometimes geniculate,
caryopsis as thick or thicker than broad. Ecology: Found on woodland slopes
and in forests, often in moist soil and partial shade to 9,000 ft (2743 m); flowers
July–November. Notes: Told apart from B. catharticus by the lack of an awn in
B. catharticus. Ethnobotany: Seeds parched, ground into flour, used also for
mush. Etymology: Bromus is from Greek bromo, for stinking, while carinatus
means keeled like a boat. Synonyms: Bromus carinatus var. californicus, B.
carinatus var. carinatus, B. carinatus var. hookerianus, B. laciniatus, Ceratochloa
carinata
©2006 Patrick Alexander
©2008 Keir Morse