Thinleaf false brome

Brachypodium phoenicoides, the thinleaf false brome, is a rhizomatous perennial grass in the family Poaceae native to the western Mediterranean basin, occurring from the Iberian Peninsula and southern France across to North Africa and parts of Italy. Plants form loose to dense colonies through long creeping rhizomes, with erect smooth culms 40-100 cm tall. Leaf blades are flat or somewhat involute, narrow (2-5 mm wide), 10-30 cm long, stiffly erect, bright green, with finely scabrous margins; the ligule is a short truncate membrane 1-2 mm long. The inflorescence is a strict, narrowly racemose spike-like panicle 6-15 cm long with 4-10 cylindrical spikelets borne alternately on a slightly zigzag rachis, each spikelet 2-4 cm long. Each spikelet contains 8-20 florets with lanceolate, glabrous to faintly pubescent lemmas tipped by a short straight awn 2-6 mm long. Flowering takes place from May to July. The species inhabits dry to mesic Mediterranean grasslands, roadside verges, oak woodland margins, fallow fields, and lightly disturbed open ground on limestone or marl, often forming extensive single-species swards.