Introduced. Annual or winter annual. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: June to July.

Seed-time: July to August.

Range: Nova Scotia to Virginia, and westward to the Mississippi River. Not common, but "becoming frequent."

Habitat: Fields and waste places.

Soft Chess differs from Cheat in being smaller, the culms one to two feet tall, erect, slender, simple. The whole plant is softly hairy, while Cheat is smooth. Panicle erect and rather compact instead of open and drooping, the spikelets having shorter pedicels; these are six- to ten-seeded, the glumes covered with soft appressed hairs, the lemma, tipped with an awn about as long as itself, and straight. (Fig. 27.)

It should be fought in the same manner as the common Chess, for if allowed to have its way, it may become as pernicious as that weed.

Fig. 27. - Soft Chess (Bromus hordeacens). X 1/4.