Cheat grass is an annual weed whose name derives from its roof habitat

Evidence

Lest you gain too optimistic an impression of this new ingredient of the melting pot, let me say that cheat is not a grass in the sense of forming a live sod. It is an annual weed of the grass family, like foxtail or crabgrass, dying each fall and reseeding that fall or the next spring. In Europe its habitat is the decaying straw of thatched roofs. The Latin word for roof is tectum, hence the label ‘Brome of the roofs.’ A plant that can make a living on the roof of a house can also thrive on this rich but arid roof of the continent. — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 549

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains what cheat grass is and the etymology of Bromus tectorum.
• XREF: connects to: Cheat grass both enables the erosion its presence is blamed for preventing — Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other…, 557