Slender false brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum)
Synonyms: Festuca sylvaticaCommon Names: False brome
Description: First recorded in the United States in 1939 from a collection near Eugene, Oregon.
Habit: Perennial grass that grows in clumps 12-18 inches high. In some locations, roots have a strong wintergreen aroma.
Leaves: Dense tufts of hairy, linear-lanceolate, 4-10 mm wide and up to 12 inches long, yellow-green, lax (floppy) leaves and long-lasting bright green color. Color remains late into the fall and early winter.
Stems: Covered in fine hairs and has sheaths that open to the base.
Flowers: Flowering stalks (culms) grow up to 3 ft tall and have densely hairy nodes and slightly elevated above the rest of plant. 4-12 spikelets (clusters of flowers) per culm and each have a tiny 0.5-2 mm long pedicel (spikelet stalk) which occurs singly at each node of inflorescence.
Fruit and seeds: Seeds are short-lived and no information is available on seed viability.
Habitat: Native to Europe, Asia and North Africa. Can be found growing on forest floors and open environments such as pastures and prairies at a variety of aspects and elevations. Known locations have been riparian forests to upland hardwood and conifer forests under patchy and closed canopies at elevations of 200-3500 ft.
Reproduction: By seeds that are short lived. Does not appear to be rhizomatous, but individual plants grow closely together and form dense, monotypic patches.
Monitoring and rapid response: Appears to be resistant to fire, re-sprouting within two weeks of a burn. Can be controlled using vegetative and pre-emergent herbicide or hot-foam (Waipuna). Also, hand-pulling in small locations can be effective. Combinations of control methods is most effective. Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the New York Flora Association, USDS Forest Service Invasive Species Alert bulletin and the King County Noxious Weed Control Program.
Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org). Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).