Bromus arenarius

Australian chess, Australian Chess

Family: Poaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Australian chess is a naturalized annual grass found in the California Floristic Province and Desert bioregions in open, disturbed places at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces pale green to tan spikelets with nodding branches that curve dramatically like an S-shape. Growing 15 to 60 centimeters tall with hairy stems and spreading branches, it has a loose, open growth habit characteristic of disturbed landscapes. Its leaves are soft and hairy, with narrow blades 2 to 5 millimeters wide and small ligules measuring 1.5 to 2.5 millimeters long. The spikelets feature delicate hairy glumes and lemmas with slender awns 9 to 14 millimeters long, emerging just below the tip.

Habitat: Open, disturbed places

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: < 2000 m

Bioregions: CA-FP, D

California counties: San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, Colusa, Fresno, Glenn, Kern, Mendocino, Monterey, Riverside, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Tulare, Tuolumne, Inyo, Lake, Madera, Mariposa, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Ventura, San Joaquin, Tehama, Santa Cruz, El Dorado, Alameda, Placer, San Mateo, Calaveras, Merced, Yolo, Napa, Sacramento, Imperial

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.