Family: Poaceae
Festuca bromoides (brome fescue) is a loosely tufted annual grass native from Africa to temperate Asia and Europe. It has been widely introduced and has naturalized in North and South America, Australasia, Africa, and all the main Hawaiian Islands except Niihau and Kahoolawe. It is a weed of crops, pastures, roadsides, lawns. In addition, it competes with native grasses and forms dense swards that can crowd out native plants and reduce species richness.
High Risk Traits:
- Elevation range exceeds 2000 m, demonstrating environmental versatility
- Naturalized in regions with tropical climates
- Widely naturalized in the Hawaiian Islands and elsewhere
- A crop and environmental weed
- Other Vulpia species have become invasive
- Possibly allelopathic
- Host for a range of cereal root diseases
- Tolerates many soil types
- Forms dense swards crowding out native plants and reducing species richness
- Reproduces by seeds
- Hybridizes with other Vulpia and Festuca species
- Self-fertile
- Annual (reaches maturity in one growing season)
- Seeds dispersed by attaching to clothing, vehicles, animals, as a agricultural contaminant, and by wind and water
- Prolific seed production
- Seeds may persist in the soil for several years, forming a persistent seed bank
Low Risk Traits:
- Palatable to animals, although seeds may lodge in the eyes, ears, mouths and skin of livestock, causing them discomfort
- Non-toxic
- Not reported to spread vegetatively
- Herbicides may provide effective control
- Cultivation and fire may provide effective control
