Brachypodium sylvaticum

Last updated

False brome
Brachypodium sylvaticum
Brachypodium sylvaticum hivern.jpg
Habitus
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Pooideae
Genus: Brachypodium
Species:
B. sylvaticum
Binomial name
Brachypodium sylvaticum
(Huds.) Beauv.
Synonyms
  • Bromus sylvaticus(Huds.) Pollich
  • Festuca sylvatica(Huds.)

Brachypodium sylvaticum, commonly known as false-brome, [1] slender false brome [2] or wood false brome, is a perennial grass native to Europe, Asia and Africa. It has a broad native range stretching from North Africa to Eurasia. [3]

Contents

The bunchgrass is most commonly found in forests and woodlands, preferring the shaded canopy, but may grow in open areas. It prefers well drained neutral and calcerous soils, and avoids wet conditions.

Description

Dry inflorescence Brachypodium sylvaticum espiguetes seques.jpg
Dry inflorescence

Brachypodium sylvaticum is a tall tufted perennial bunchgrass that grows up to about a 0.9 metres (3.0 ft) high.

The drooping leaf blade of the plant is dark green, or bright-yellow green, flat and up to 12 mm wide with a fringe of hairs surrounding the edge of the leaf. The leaves do not have auricles. The leaf blade is joined to the hollow culm by the leaf sheath. This hairy sheath is open and surrounds the culm. The culm is pilose (long, soft, hairy), and typically has 4 to 5 nodes. [4] The ligules are blunt, 1–6 millimetres (0.039–0.236 in) long.

The grass has drooping narrow long spikelets of flowers on very short pedicels. The flower head is 6–20 centimetres (2.4–7.9 in) long, the plant flowering in July and August. Its awns are straight and 6–18 millimetres (0.24–0.71 in) long, projecting out of the end of the spikelets.

Wildlife value

Its seeds can be dispersed by wildlife and humans. The caterpillars of some Lepidoptera use it as a foodplant, e.g. the chequered skipper (Carterocephalus palaemon) and the Essex skipper (Thymelicus lineola).

Invasive species in North America

The grass is an introduced species in North America. Brachypodium sylvaticum is an invasive species colonizing new areas and outcompeting native plants. As this species has spread to the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. it has demonstrated a capability of dominating forest understories and open grasslands to the exclusion of all other flora found in those areas.

Recent observations suggest that populations at the leading edge of the expanding range undergo an establishment phase before they can contribute to the local invasion, perhaps because newly colonized populations are suffering from inbreeding depression.

Oregon

Brachypodium sylvaticum is a newly invasive brome species in Oregon that is rapidly expanding in the Pacific Northwest. Although B. sylvaticum appears to be in the early phases of invasion in North America, it has become a noxious weed throughout the Willamette Valley area of Oregon since the late 1980s. [5] It is most likely that B. sylvaticum was first introduced to Oregon in range experiments when accessions from the native range were planted near Eugene and Corvallis in the Willamette Valley using seed obtained from the USDA Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction anywhere between 70 and 80 years ago. [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Andropogon gerardi</i> Species of grass

Andropogon gerardi, commonly known as big bluestem, is a species of tall grass native to much of the Great Plains and grassland regions of central and eastern North America. It is also known as tall bluestem, bluejoint, and turkeyfoot.

<i>Bromus ramosus</i> Species of grass

Bromus ramosus, the hairy brome, is a bunchgrass in the grass family Poaceae, native to Europe, northwest Africa and southwest Asia. The name Bromus comes from the term brome, meaning oats. Unlike most other bromes, it grows in shady sites under trees.

<i>Bromus arvensis</i> Species of grass

Bromus arvensis, the field brome, is a brome grass native to Europe and Asia. The specific epithet arvensis is Latin, meaning "of cultivated land".

<i>Brachypodium pinnatum</i> Species of grass

Brachypodium pinnatum, the heath false brome or tor-grass, is a species of grass with a widespread distribution in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It typically grows in calcareous grassland, and reaches 70–120 centimetres (28–47 in) tall. The flowerhead is open, with 10 to 15 erect spikelets.

<i>Sporobolus heterolepis</i> Species of flowering plant

Sporobolus heterolepis, commonly known as prairie dropseed, is a species of prairie grass native to the tallgrass and mixed grass prairies of central North America from Texas to southern Canada. It is also found further east, to the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada, but is much less common beyond the Great Plains and is restricted to specialized habitats. It is found in 27 states and four Canadian provinces.

<i>Tragus</i> (plant) Genus of grasses

Tragus, commonly called bur gras, burr grass or carrot-seed grass, is a genus of plants in the grass family. It is native to Africa, Australia, and Eurasia with several species on islands in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans plus one species in Argentina.

<i>Bromus hordeaceus</i> Species of grass

Bromus hordeaceus, the soft brome, is an annual or biennial species of grass in the true grass family (Poaceae). It is also known in North America as bull grass, soft cheat, and soft chess.

<i>Bromus interruptus</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Poaceae

Bromus interruptus, commonly known as the interrupted brome, is a flowering plant in the grass family. It is endemic to southern and central England, which became extinct in the wild in 1972. After several decades in cultivation, the interrupted brome was re-introduced to Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve in 2004, marking the first known re-introduction of an extinct plant in Britain. The plant was a weed of waste places and arable agriculture, particularly of sainfoin cultivation. It can be distinguished from all other Bromus species by its deeply split, or bifid, palea.

<i>Bromus sterilis</i> Species of grass

Bromus sterilis is an annual or biennial species of bromegrass known as barren brome, poverty brome, and sterile brome.

<i>Bromus madritensis</i> Species of grass

Bromus madritensis is a species of brome grass known by the common name compact brome. The specific epithet madritensis refers to Madrid, Spain. It has a diploid number of 28.

<i>Bromus briziformis</i> Species of grass

Bromus briziformis is a species of brome grass known by the common name rattlesnake brome. The specific epithet briziformis comes from the resemblance of the grass to grasses of the genus Briza, particularly Briza maxima. The common name is derived from the resemblance of the spikelets to the rattles of rattlesnakes. The grass has a diploid number of 14.

<i>Bromus carinatus</i> Species of flowering plant

Bromus carinatus is a species of brome grass known by the common names California brome and mountain brome.

<i>Bromus catharticus</i> Species of grass

Bromus catharticus is a species of brome grass known by the common names rescuegrass, grazing brome, prairie grass, and Schrader's bromegrass. The specific epithet catharticus is Latin, meaning cathartic. The common name rescuegrass refers to the ability of the grass to provide forage after harsh droughts or severe winters. The grass has a diploid number of 42.

<i>Bromus ciliatus</i> Species of grass

Bromus ciliatus is a species of brome grass known by the common name fringed brome. It is native to most of North America, including most of Canada, most of the United States except for some portions of the South, and northern Mexico. It is a plant of many habitats, including temperate coniferous forest. The specific epithet ciliatus is Latin for "ciliate", referring to the delicate hairs of the leaf blades.

<i>Bromus kalmii</i> Species of grass

Bromus kalmii, the Arctic brome or prairie brome, is a species of brome grass. It is a native bunchgrass in the North-central and Northeastern United States, the Great Lakes region, and eastern Canada. The specific epithet kalmii refers to its discoverer Pehr Kalm.

<i>Setaria verticillata</i> Species of grass

Setaria verticillata is a species of grass known by the common names hooked bristlegrass, rough bristle-grass and bristly foxtail. It is native to Europe, but it is known on most continents as an introduced species and often a noxious weed. It is a hardy bunchgrass which grows in many types of urban, cultivated, and disturbed habitat. It is a weed of many types of agricultural crops, growing in vineyards and fields. Herbicide-resistant strains have been noted.

<i>Sporobolus vaginiflorus</i> Species of flowering plant

Sporobolus vaginiflorus is a species of grass known by the common names poverty grass, poverty dropseed, and sheathed dropseed.

<i>Bromus japonicus</i> Species of grass

Bromus japonicus, the Japanese brome, is an annual brome grass native to Eurasia. The grass has a diploid number of 14.

<i>Rhynchospora inexpansa</i> Species of grass-like plant

Rhynchospora inexpansa, commonly called nodding beaksedge, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family (Cyperaceae). It is native to North America, where it is found in the southeastern United States and West Indies. Its typical natural habitat is in moist meadows, flatwoods, and pond edges. It is a weedy species that responds positively to ecological disturbance.

<i>Glyceria canadensis</i> Species of grass

Glyceria canadensis is a species of grass in the genus Glyceria which is known by the common name rattlesnake mannagrass. It is native to North America, from British Columbia to Newfoundland and south to North Carolina. It is commonly found in wet areas.

References

  1. BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  2. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Brachypodium sylvaticum". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  3. Hitchcock 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
  4. C E Hubbard (1978). Grasses. Penguin books.
  5. Kaye, T. N. and M. Blakeley-Smith. 2006. False-brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum). Pp. 80-81 in P. D. Boersma, S. E. Reichard, and A. N. van Buren, eds. Invasive species in the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
  6. Cruzan, M. B. 2019. How to make a weed - the saga of the slender false brome invasion in the North American west and lessons for the future. Bioscience 69:469-507. (http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biz051)