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Vegetative Morphology

 
Plants annual or perennial; cespitose.
Culms 5-100 cm, mostly erect, unbranched.
Internodes hollow.
Nodes glabrous.
Sheaths sometimes less than 1/2 as long as the internodes, open.
Auricles absent.
Ligules hyaline.
Blades flat, mostly erect.

Reproductive Morphology

 
Inflorescences open panicles.
Branches sparsely strigose, capillary, spikelets usually pendulous.
Spikelets pedicellate, oval to triangular in side view, becoming light brown at maturity, laterally compressed but the glumes and lemmas with broadly rounded backs.
Glumes and florets strongly divergent from the rachillas.
Florets 4-12(15), chartaceous, distal florets rudimentary.
Rachillas glabrous, not prolonged beyond the distal rudiment.
Disarticulation above the glumes and between the florets.
Glumes subequal, naviculate, faintly 3-7-veined, margins more or less membranous, apices obtuse.
Calluses short, glabrous.
Lemmas about as wide as long, similar in shape to the glumes but somewhat cordate, margins becoming hyaline, frequently splitting perpendicular to the midveins, unawned.
Paleas shorter than the lemmas, scarious or chartaceous.
Lodicules 2, joined or free, usually entire, sometimes toothed.
Anthers 3.
Ovaries glabrous.
Caryopses ovoid to obovoid, hila round to elliptic.

Species Distribution Maps

Briza media Briza maxima Briza minor

Chromosome Number(s)

x = 5, 7

Additional Notes

From the Greek brizo, 'to nod', in reference to the spikelets.

Briza, a genus of about 20 species, is native to Eurasia and South America. Most species have little to no fodder value because of the scant foliage. The ornamental value of the genus is more significant; they are often grown for use in dried floral arrangements. Three European species are now scattered in the more temperate parts of southern Canada and the United States, and will undoubtedly be collected in areas not indicated here. Briza species can become weedy where established.

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Name/Synonymy Publication Info

Briza L., Sp. pl. 1:70 (1753). LEC: Briza minor L..

Treatment from

Neil Snow. Briza in Flora of North America, volume 24. In prep. Oxford University Press.

Fact Sheet Developed By

Pedro Oñativia Lake © 2006.