What is "brachypodium"

Brachypodium is a genus of plants in the grass family, widespread across much of Africa, Eurasia, and Latin America. It is classified in its own tribe Brachypodieae.

Flimsy upright stems form tussocks. Flowers appear in compact spike-like racemes with 5-25 flowers on each short-stalked spikelet in summer. Leaves are flat or curved.

According to an October 18, 2010 issue of "Nature Online" Laura Longo, an archeologist at University of Siena in Italy found evidence of Brachypodium and cattail ( Typha spp.) residues on prehistoric human grinding tools dated 28,000 years ago from Bilanco in central Italy. A related article authored by Anna Revedin, Biancamaria Aranguren, Roberto Becattini, Laura Longo, Emanuele Marconi, Marta Mariotti Lippi, Natalia Skakun, Andrey Sinitsyn, Elena Spiridonova, and Jiří Svoboda, was contemporaneously published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America and clarifies that the grain residues resemble Brachypodium, based on a comparison to two modern specimens: "Among these, the grains, which are slightly angular, with hardly visible centric, point-shaped hila and adequate dimensions (in the sample measuring 9–14 μm), appeared very similar to those of Brachypodium or related genera."

1. Brachypodium × ambrosii - Spain
2. Brachypodium × apollinaris - Spain
3. Brachypodium arbusculum - Canary Islands
4. Brachypodium bolusii - Lesotho, South Africa
5. Brachypodium × cugnacii - Denmark, Ireland, France, Czech Rep
6. Brachypodium × diazii - Spain
7. Brachypodium distachyon - Mediterranean, Sahara, Sahel, southwest Asia from Portugal + Cape Verde to Sudan + Ukraine + Tibet
8. Brachypodium firmifolium - Cyprus
9. Brachypodium flexum - Africa from Sierra Leone to KwaZulu-Natal + Madagascar
10. Brachypodium humbertianum - Madagascar
11. Brachypodium kawakamii - Taiwan
12. Brachypodium kotschyi - Turkey
13. Brachypodium madagascariense - Madagascar
14. Brachypodium mexicanum - Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia
15. Brachypodium perrieri - Madagascar
16. Brachypodium phoenicoides - Mediterranean from Portugal + Morocco to Greece
17. Brachypodium pinnatum - Africa + Eurasia from Ireland + Morocco to China + Yakutia
18. Brachypodium pringlei - Mexico ( Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Coahuila)
19. Brachypodium retusum - Mediterranean + nearby areas from Portugal + Morocco to Ethiopia + Caucasus
20. Brachypodium sylvaticum - Africa + Eurasia from Ireland + Morocco to Korea + New Guinea

numerous species once considered members of Brachypodium but now considered better suited to other genera: Agropyron Anthosachne Arundinella Brachyelytrum Brachysteleum Catapodium Cutandia Distichlis Elymus Festuca Festucopsis Lolium Micropyrum Poa Ptychomitrium Rostraria Triticum Vulpia