| False Brome Brachypodium sylvaticum |
|
|---|---|
| Habitus | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| (unranked): | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Subfamily: | Pooideae |
| Genus: | Brachypodium |
| Species: | B. sylvaticum |
| Binomial name | |
| Brachypodium sylvaticum (Huds.) Beauv. |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Bromus sylvaticus (Huds.) Pollich |
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Contents |
False Brome, Slender False Brome or Wood False Brome, Brachypodium sylvaticum, is a perennial grass native to Europe, Asia and north Africa.
A tall tufted perennial bunchgrass growing up to about a 0.9 m high, it 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.[1]
It has drooping narrow long spikelets of flowers on very short pedicels and drooping leaves. Its awns are straight and 6 to 18 mm long, projecting out of the end of the spikelets. The flower head is 6 to 20cm long, the plant flowering in July and August
The 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. [2]
The ligules are blunt, 1 to 6 mm long.
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).
It has been introduced to North America and is considered a noxious weed in Oregon, USA.
Brachypodium sylvaticum is a newly-invasive brome species in Oregon that is rapidly expanding in the Pacific Northwest. This invasive grass has a broad native range stretching from North Africa to Eurasia (Hitchcock et al. 1969). Although B. sylvaticum appears to be in the early phases of invasion in North America, it has become noxious throughout the Willamette Valley area of Oregon in the last 20 years (Kaye 2001). It is speculated that B. sylvaticum was first introduced to Oregon in range experiments when accessions from the native range were planted at two locations in the Willamette Valley anywhere between 70 to 80 years ago (Rosenthal et al. 2008).
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.
False brome is an invasive species colonizing new areas and outcompeting native flora. As this species has spread to the Pacific Northwest it has demonstrated a capability of dominating forest understories and open grasslands to the exclusion of all other flora found in those areas.