General: Cheat Grass (Bromus tectorum) is an invasive exotic species (native to Eurasia) that has disrupted Sagebrush ecosystems in the Great Basin Desert and has invaded higher elevations in the Mojave Desert.

Cheat Grass is a common component of vegetation communities in the Great Basin Desert, and it can be found in the mountains around Las Vegas in the Upper Sonoran (Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) and Transition (Yellow Pine Forest) life zones.

Cheat Grass grows densely under native shrubs and in the open spaces between shrubs. This grass sprouts early in the spring, grows quickly, then sets seed and dies, leaving a dense carpet of dry grass that carries fires in areas that once rarely burned because the shrubs were spread too far apart. Because it burns so easily, Cheat Grass is changing the Great Basin Desert from a shrub-dominated landscape to an open grassland. Cheat Grass is related to Red Brome Grass, which is having a similar effect in the Mojave Desert.

The flowering heads of Cheat Grass droop and hang down.

Drooping flowering heads of Cheat Grass (left) versus upright flowering heads of Red Brome Grass (right).