Invasive Smooth Brome bullies the Native Western Wheatgrass

Photo Credit

Forest Service photo by Jacqueline Ott

Smooth brome has started a new patch in the middle of western wheatgrass on Buffalo Gap National Grassland in western South Dakota.

Through greenhouse and growth chamber studies, researchers have shown that smooth brome (Bromus inermis) can produce more buds and aboveground stems under a range of precipitation variabilities than the dominant native perennial western wheatgrass. 

When in competition with one another, western wheatgrass "retreats" and places buds and tillers closer to parent plants while smooth brome has a more spreading growth pattern and "bullies" western wheatgrass to cede its location in the grassland plant community.

In the northern Great Plains of North America, the invasion of non-native smooth brome into tallgrass and mixed-grass prairie is a growing concern. To manage smooth brome, it is best to eliminate it early before it starts beating up native species. Dry years would likely be the best years to manage smooth brome.