Cheat Grass, Downy Chess
Bromus tectorum
An annual weed that reaches about one foot tall, having a covering of downy hair. Each plant bears two erect, arched stems growing pendant spikelets, the number of which increase and decrease with the richness of the soil the most spikelets being in rich soil. This pattern ensures that there is always sufficient resources to produce a couple of fully developed seeds rather than wasting the resources on unnecessary abortive seeds. The plant can produce up to 10,000 plants per square yard. The lemmas or mid bracts of the spikelets have long straight bristle awns that tend to get lodged in the mouths of cattle causing infection,
Figure 1. Illustration of cheatgrass. From USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database/Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase). 1950. Manual of the grasses of the United States. USDA Misc. Publ. No. 200. Washington DC..however this plant does make foraging possible early and late in the season while native grasses are dormant. Native to Europe and implanted throughout western North America especially in over-grazed and waste areas where it is more adaptable to harsh conditions and can take the land over. This plant is an annual, it resides on a winter annual meaning it's seeds germinate from fall into winter and reaches maturity in spring finally dying in the onset of summer. The plant is highly flammable and can increase the intensity of fires but decrease the intervals between them. It lacks biological predators here in Oregon and other places in the northwest which puts it at an advantage over native species in the competition over recourses and space.
