Bromus lepidus Holmberg (syn.: B. brittanicus I.A. Williams ) (SW-Eur.) – A very rare and ephemeral alien but very poorly known. Probably always introduced with grass seed. Most often found in artificial grasslands, along newly sown road verges, on dumps and rough ground. It was most recently seen in a recently sown plot on a talus slope by motorway E17 in Marke (Kortrijk) in 2012.
A very poorly known species, often confused with Bromus hordeaceus, especially subsp. pseudothominei. As a matter of fact, several herbarium collections of presumed Bromus lepidus turned out to belong to the latter taxon. Bromus lepidus has still smaller lemmas (4,5-6,5 mm long) with more or less sharply angled, broadly scarious margins and the caryopsis definitely exceeds the palea at maturity. Moreover, its awn is inserted at the bottom of the deeply cleft lemma apex, an almost unique feature in Bromus (see Holmström & Scholz 2000).
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Selected literature:
Acedo C. & Llamas F. (1996) Bromus lepidus and Bromus pseudothominii (sic), two new records for the Iberian Peninsula. Fl. Medit. 6: 191-196.
Holmström G. & Scholz H. (2000) Bromus bidentatus spec. nova and B. lepidus, two odd brome-grasses (Gramineae). Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 122: 195-200.
Lambinon J. (1957) Contribution à l’étude de la flore adventice de la Belgique. I. Adventices rares ou nouvelles pour la Belgique. Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg. 89: 85-100.