Invasive false brome grass is spreading

The grass is false brome (Brachypodium sylvaticum), a native of Europe and Asia, which likely landed in Oregon by way of USDA experimental plots in 1939 near Corvallis and Eugene. This grass likely was brought in, along with other grasses from around the world, to test as a range-improvement crop, but in the test plots the genotypes crossed to create "a little monster" hybrid, according to research published in 2008 by Mitchell Cruzan of Portland State University. The grass escaped and is found today across Oregon, north to south from Astoria to Grants Pass and from west to east from the coast to near Madras, but mostly it is concentrated in the Willamette Valley.