Smooth Brome - Bromus racemosus

Very similar to Meadow Brome and a specimen needs to be examined by an expert to be sure of a correct identification.  Refer to key in Stace (4th edn.)

other Bromus. This is a very difficult genus; the species are very variable, and often very small and with reduced numbers of spikelets in dry conditions.

The County Recorder has asked for a specimen of this plant to be retained for verification

Unimproved hay and water meadows, usually on damp, periodically flooded alluvial soils. It is most frequent on the drier margins of fields, sometimes growing on the dredgings from the ditches bordering them. It is also found as a grass-seed casual in arable margins and on verges.

Flowering May to July.

Annual.

Widespread but local in Britain and declining.

Infrequent and local in Leicestershire and Rutland – mainly in the Soar valley. In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 11 of the 617 tetrads.

It was on the 2011 VC55 Rare Plant Register (Jeeves, 2011) but improved recording since then has meant it is found in more sites than previously thought, so it doesn't meet the criteria for the current RPR (Hall and Woodward, 2022)