Woodland Brome

Description

Bromus pubescens, commonly known as Woodland Brome or Hairy Woodland Brome, is a native perennial, cool season grass. It has fibrous roots and usually lacks rhizomes.

Insects that feed on woodland brome grasses are poorly documented, but they may include the following two species: leaf-mining larvae of the leaf beetle, Chalepus walshii, and leaf-mining larvae of the moth, Elachista illectella. Some vertebrate animals that feed on the seeds of these grasses include the Ruffed Grouse, Wild Turkey, various sparrows, and the White-Footed Mouse. Vertebrate animals that feed on the foliage include the White-Tailed Deer (during fall & winter) and Cottontail Rabbit (young foliage).

Woodland brome is one of the few brome grasses native to Missouri. Most of the rest were introduced for use in pastures or other fodder. The foliage of Bromus pubescens is palatable to domesticated farm animals (cattle, horses, etc.) when it is young.

This grass prefers partial sun to light shade, moist to mesic conditions, and soil containing fertile loam, silt-loam, or sandy loam. It is one of the taller grasses with some tolerance of shade. Lovely arching seed heads.

Occurs in mesic (moist) to dry upland forests, often in ravines or valleys, banks of streams, ledges of wooded bluffs, and less commonly along margins of sinkhole ponds and bottomland forests. Also occurs in old fields and roadsides.

This is the most widespread of the native perennial bromes, both in distribution and variety of habitats. It occurs variously on dry, cherty slopes and in rich, moist soils of sheltered ravines and valleys. Usually found in shaded areas.

The most common introduced brome in Missouri is downy chess (or downy brome or cheatgrass, B. tectorum), with flower stalks that become pink or purple-tinged, often forming dense stands along roadsides and other disturbed places.

Woodland brome, which serves as a woodland groundcover, plays a role in stabilizing the rather thin, rocky soils of upland woods, permitting many other plants, including mosses, wildflowers, and trees, to survive. Together, these plants build woodland natural communities, with all the plants and animals they support.