Sweet brome

Bromus carinatus, commonly known as California brome or mountain brome, is a tufted perennial or short-lived perennial grass of the family Poaceae, native to western North America from British Columbia and Alberta south through the western United States to northern Mexico, where it grows in open woodland, meadows, prairies and disturbed ground from sea level to subalpine elevations. The plant forms loose clumps with erect to ascending culms 50–120 cm tall, sometimes reaching 150 cm. The leaves are flat, 4–12 mm wide, 10–30 cm long, soft, with glabrous to softly pubescent sheaths and a short, membranous ligule. The inflorescence is an open to somewhat contracted panicle 10–25 cm long with stiff, ascending to spreading branches bearing relatively large, laterally flattened spikelets 2–4 cm long with 5–11 florets. The lemmas are strongly keeled, 10–17 mm long, with a straight, stout terminal awn 3–10 mm long. Flowering occurs from late spring into summer. The species is variable and includes several recognised subspecies.