Help with identifying a grass in my yard

11 years ago

Hey all,

I have some pics of a type of grass that is growing in my back yard that I would appreciate some help with identifying. Some background first... We are in Colorado Springs and I think it's zone 5b. We have a hill in our backyard that we are letting go for now and just keeping the weeds low, favoring focusing on a lower flatter portion of the yard for now. We have a sandy type soil too.

This past month we have had a grass come up on our hill that I would like to know what it is because it seems to be very drought tolerant and nice enough to keep around if I can control it and it doesn't become a problem. It looks like a bunch grass (I think that's what it's called) too.

Hopefully the pics will suffice, but let me know if you need better ones, closer ones, root pics. I tried to take pics of several different sizes and stages.

Thanks in advance!

Here is a link that might be useful: Here are the pics

Comments (3)

firstandgoal
11 years ago
That is Downy Brome.
yjbrody
Original Author
11 years ago
I see...

From what I'm finding that's not the good news I was hoping for seeing as I'm looking and have noticed that it's migrated to my new(ish) lawn that hasn't quite come in yet.

Any advice to get ride of it without harming the new stuff? I'd like to go chemical free. New grass is mostly made up of drought tolerant species (sheep fescue, crested wheatgrass and thickspike wheatgrass).

Thanks in advance for any help.
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marktrot1
11 years ago
Pull it pull it pull it before it drops seeds. It's very bad here. In southern Arizona it has taken over completely....unfortunately it dries out badly and then is a huge fire danger.
Quite a few groups here will get together and do massive "weed control" in areas by pulling out acres of it in an attempt to save/recover natural areas.
A good prairie sod grass like western wheatgrass, thickspike, or streambank wheatgrass will likely outcompete the brome. The brome tends to be slightly purple in early spring and is easily identified. It can be sprayed when actively growing early on. It is an annual, so it spreads (prolifically) by seed only.