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Plants - spring
Mint Wash - Tr 345 Sue Smith | Plant - summer
Mint Wash - Tr 345 Sue Smith | Plants - spring
Mint Wash - Tr 345 Sue Smith | Roots & blades
Mint Wash - Tr 345 Sue Smith | Seedheads
Mint Wash - Tr 345 Sue Smith | Spikelets
Mint Wash - Tr 345 Sue Smith | | | | | |
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Origin: Introduced Season: Cool
Habitat Description: Grows in disturbed ground, waste places, fields, sand dunes, and roadsides.
Plant Communities: Disturbed Areas
Elevation: 1000 - 6600 feet
Desc: Erect or bending annual, 8 to 35 inches tall, height depends on moisture. Seedhead with long awns.
Identification notes: Weedy annual plants; sheaths hairy; no auricles; ligules 1/16 inch; seedhead open with spreading branches; spikelets cylindrical; awns 1-1/2 to 2 inches long, not twisted; narrow lemmas with two teeth up to ¼ inch long point.
Grass Type: Annual Rhizomes: N Stolons: N
Large Dense Clump (> 2 feet): N Bushy (highly branched): N
Height with Seedheads: 24 to 36 inches
Seedhead Structure: Branched - open and spreading Seedhead Droops: Y
Flowering Period: Apr - Jul
Number of Flowers per Spikelet: Multi-flowered Spikelets One-sided: N
Awns: Greater than 1 inch Three Awns: N Awns Bent: N
Flower and Seedhead Notes: Seedhead is open, drooping, 3 to 6 inches long, lower branches are shorter, 3/8 to 3/4 inches long. Spikelets of 5 to 7 florets. Lemmas may be hairy. Awns long and strong.
Blade Hairy: Y Blade with White Margin: N Blade Cross Section: Flat or involute
Blade Notes: Blades hairy and flat on both sides, 4 to 8 inches long, 1/8 to 1/2 inch wide. Edges of blade roll inward when dry.
Sheath Hairy: Y Tuft of Hairs Top of Sheath or Collar: N Ligules: Membranous
Auricles (Ear-like lobes at base of blades): N
Vegetative Notes: Sheaths soft-hairy, often with directed back, downward or spreading hairs. Ligules <1/8 inch, blunt or rounded, usually making an angle of more than 90 degrees, appear to be torn at the edge or irregularly cleft or notched, looks gnawed.
Forage Value: Excellent in seedling stage and during vigorous vegetative growth, but poor to fair upon flowering and poor when mature. The name ripgut brome suggests possible damage to animals if they consume the sharp, long-awned florets of this species.
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