Soft

Soft Brome (Bromus hordeaceus)

One of the new grasses to show up in the garden this year is Common Soft Brome (Bromus hordeaceus) — and it's suddenly fairly abundant along the foot of the mound that runs along one side of our property. This annual (occasionally biennial) grass is said to be Britain's most common Bromus species, so it's a bit surprising we haven't recorded it before now. I'm guessing we might just have overlooked it. It's a grass of open habitats, including meadows, roadsides, dunes and "waste places", and is particularly common in human-managed habitats. Its tufts of grey-green leaves can be found year-round, but its compact flower heads, and the ensuing seeds that develop, are seen from May to August. The oval flower heads, and the long, stiff bristles that extend from their tips, are distinctive. It's a relatively tall grass, sometimes reaching a metre in height. Highly adaptable, it tolerates shade, full sun, drought, browsing pressure, fire, cutting and more.

Though native to Europe, Common Soft Brome has been widely introduced across North and South America, Asia, Australia and some Pacific islands. In North America, it's known as "bull grass", "soft chess" or "soft cheat". It's rated as a good forage grass, and has also been used for erosion control. However, it's a weed of cereal and clover crops, and can cause conservation problems in areas where it has been introduced. Because of this, it's widely considered to be an invasive plant, sometimes even within its native range. However, it's not causing any problems here (yet anyway), so we're happy to let it be.