Annual, culms erect or geniculately ascending, up to 80 cm high. Leaf-blades up to 30 cm long, 2-8 mm wide; sheaths pubescent. Panicle 5-25 cm long, rather lax and nodding or erect with ascending branches, the branches and pedicels often filiform and flexuous, usually longer than the spikelets. Spikelets lanceolate, 4-10-flowered, 13-30 mm long excluding the awns, laterally somewhat compressed, scaberulous to puberulous, sometimes glabrous or pubescent; lower glume narrowly lanceolate, (5-)5.5-8(-10) mm long, (1-)3 -nerved, acuminate. upper glume 7-11 mm long, 3-5(-7)-nerved, acute; lemma narrowly oblanceolate in side view, the lower 7.5-15 mm long, herbaceous with hyaline margins, weakly keeled, 5-7-nerved, acutely 2-toothed (rarely truncate and denticulate), the awn arising 2-3 mm below the hyaline tip; awn 7-17 mm long, the lower a little shorter than the upper, slender with flattened base, straight or weakly divergent, very rarely reflexed; palea reaching to the base of the awn, the keels pectinate-ciliate with hairs 0.5 mm long; anthers 0.5-1.3 min long, rarely as much as 2.2 mm.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: April-August

Type: South Africa, Thunberg (S).

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan, Punjab, N.W.F.P., Gilgit & Kashmir); Sudan Republic, through Ethiopia to Egypt, Sinai and Arabia; south to South Africa; Iran and Afghanistan eastwards through India to China; Europe.

Perhaps because of a superficial resemblance to Bromus japonicus, especially when young, Bromus peclinatus has been overlooked in modern Asian Floras (e.g. Fl. Iran., Grasses Burma Ceyl. Ind. Pak.),It was “rediscovered” by Melderis who described it as new first as a variety of Bromus japonicus (1965) but later (1970) as a species. Its older, and correct name, however, was forgotten. In fact Melderis was not the first to fund it in Asia. Stapf (1896) named a rather poor specimen as Bromus patulus var. falconers while Penzes, in a little-known paper on ,i>Bromus, gave a good account of both the species and its distribution: he even named an immature form as Bromus gedrosianus.

Bromus pectinatus is more widespread and common in Pakistan than Bromus japonicus and is the species Wingate described as being gathered daily by Afridis and sold as fodder in Kohat markets (see the note on the Wingate specimen in K).