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Bromus sitchensis; photograph (c) Ed Alverson, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Ed Alverson, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-05-23

Bromus sitchensis Trin.

Sitka brome; Alaska brome; Stika-brome

Poaceae · Aleutian Is., Alaska +4

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Bromus sitchensis, photograph (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bromus sitchensis, photograph (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bromus sitchensis, photograph (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bromus sitchensis, photograph (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bromus sitchensis, photograph (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bromus sitchensis, photograph (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY) 85 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.6°C
Record low -16.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
24°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,335mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
7–45DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes October to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Bromus sitchenis, the Alaska brome, is a perennial grass native to the North Pacific coast of North America, in woods and banks from Alaska to Oregon. It can grow up to 1.8 m tall, but is often shorter. Leaf blades are elongate, 7–12 mm wide, and as much as 35 cm long. Spikelets 2.5 to 3.5 cm long with between 6 and 12 flowers, awn is 5 to 10 mm long.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Bromus sitchensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,050 mm of 1,364 mm) falls in October to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 7.2 °C against a yearly mean of 11.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Rain

1,364 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,050 mm of it October to March. Wettest month December at 229 mm, driest month July at 17 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 527 mm to 2,820 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,335 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,364 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 7 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 5, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.6 °C, the absolute minimum -16.6 °C, 1,147 frost nights in 44 years, 26.1 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 1.6 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -3.6 °C to 7.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.8 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -150 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Bromus sitchensis through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 24 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low 1.6 °C; 1,364 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost32.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-16.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 7–45RH 59–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 108 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C8 / 2–1410 / 3–1512 / 5–1614 / 8–1717 / 11–2020 / 14–2323 / 16–2824 / 17–2821 / 15–2517 / 11–2111 / 5–178 / 2–15
Night °C2 / -4–82 / -3–84 / -2–95 / 0–108 / 3–1211 / 5–1413 / 9–1613 / 9–1612 / 8–158 / 4–135 / -1–102 / -4–8
Rain mm201 / 106–391157 / 92–303141 / 76–29099 / 35–21675 / 11–14954 / 2–12017 / 1–6723 / 1–6646 / 6–120109 / 27–243213 / 64–433229 / 92–424
DLI8 / 7–1914 / 12–2421 / 19–3430 / 28–4336 / 34–5040 / 36–5345 / 39–5240 / 35–4830 / 26–4018 / 14–309 / 7–217 / 5–17
RH %64 / 59–6863 / 59–6663 / 59–6562 / 58–6461 / 57–6660 / 56–6759 / 53–6959 / 53–6960 / 53–6762 / 56–6665 / 58–6864 / 58–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 108 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (117 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 907:1137 (44.625, -123.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 108 distinct grid cells holding 117 of the 120 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 907:1137 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 44.50_-123.125, lapse-corrected -150 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 65 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAleutian Is., Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington, California · introduced: Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, New Zealand South · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker48.192, -122.707 · in the densest population, 143 records (60% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 238 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 117 of them in the land cells it reads, of 120 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 138 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 99 km away. 978 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 118 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 238 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Bromus sitchensis, photograph 1did not loadBromus sitchensis, photograph 2did not loadBromus sitchensis, photograph 3did not loadBromus sitchensis, photograph 4did not loadBromus sitchensis, photograph 5did not loadBromus sitchensis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Lupinus rivularis Lupinus rivularis Riverbank lupine Photo: CC BY, Harry PodschwitMarah oregana Marah oregana Western wild cucumber Photo: CC0, author not statedAcer macrophyllum Acer macrophyllum Oregon maple Photo: CC BY-SA, Rand WorkmanOemleria cerasiformis Oemleria cerasiformis Osoberry Photo: CC BY, Gavin SlaterRubus ursinus Rubus ursinus California blackberry Photo: CC BY-SA, benned-hRibes sanguineum Ribes sanguineum Flowering currant Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Bromus 30 in the reference

Bromus arenarius Bromus arenarius Australian brome Photo: CC BY, swainsona1Bromus arvensis Bromus arvensis Field brome Photo: CC BY, Наталья ПикаловаBromus benekenii Bromus benekenii Lesser Hairy-brome Photo: CC BY, Vladimír FukaBromus briziformis Bromus briziformis Rattlesnake brome Photo: CC0, author not statedBromus bromoideus Bromus bromoideus Poaceae Photo: Public domain, DaderotBromus carinatus Bromus carinatus California brome Photo: CC BY, Milan ChytrýBromus catharticus Bromus catharticus Rescue grass Photo: CC0, author not statedBromus ciliatus Bromus ciliatus Fringed brome Photo: CC BY, kursicBromus commutatus Bromus commutatus Meadow brome Photo: CC BY, Наталья ПикаловаBromus diandrus Bromus diandrus Great brome Photo: CC BY, zebedeugalinhaBromus erectus Bromus erectus Upright brome Photo: CC BY, Vladimír FukaBromus grossus Bromus grossus Whiskered brome Photo: CC BY-SA, Gerhard Nitter all 31 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Bromus willdenowii; Ceratochloa sitchensis. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
Trin.
Native to
Aleutian Is., Alaska, British Columbia +3
Wild records
238 in range · 138 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 59 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (23 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a herbarium, 32 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 44.50_-123.125, lapse-corrected -150 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Bromus sitchensis Trin. (the item's: IPNI 394118-1, POWO 30105543-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 110 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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