This alien polyploid (2n = 28 to 70) is abundant in cool temperate regions across North America, but uncommon to absent in southeastern states. B. inermis was unknown in Ky. until after 1930 (Greenwell 1935, Gunn 1959, 1968b; M), when it became widely used for forage and soil stabilization. With persistent creeping rhizomes, it is especially abundant along irregularly cut brushy roadsides and some old fields, especially in the Bluegrass Region. B. inermis is less persistent in pastures with Festuca arundinacea, and can be greatly reduced with one season of cattle (Brummer & Moore 2000). In addition to its rhizomes, inermis generally differs from other species of section Bromopsis (W) in its glabrous or glabrescent leaf blades (versus usually pubescent, at least sparsely so).