Brachypodium sylvaticum - Wood False-brome

Wood False-brome

Have you seen Brachypodium sylvaticum  in flower this late in the year?

We found Brachypodium sylvaticum - or to use its English name - Wood False Brome  - still in flower  - well fruit rather -  on our Fungus Foray earlier this October at Clapham Woods -

The Woods are on limestone so the soil is basic -you can see Dog's Mercury in the photo too - another plant which likes basic soil.

How can you recognise Brachypodium sylvaticum?

There are lots of features making Wood False-brome easily recognisable

• It usually grows in woods (or in base-rich grassland close to woods)
• The shoots grow in tufts
• The shoots are very slender at the base
• The blades are
  narrow at the base,
  very wide in the middle
  and then taper
• The blades droop
  
  
• The blades and sheaths are to some extent hairy
• There are NO AURICLES (as in the similar Hairy Brome, which grows with it in  woodland habitats)
• The tufts can look yellowish in spring
  
  
• The inflorescence is a drooping spike or raceme - the spikelet stalks are about 1 mm long.

Closer up of the above