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A serious problem facing land managers of many prairie remnant of the northern Great Plains is the invasion and persistence of introduced cool-season perennial grasses, such as smooth brome (Bromus inermis).  Smooth brome is highly competitive and spreading through prolific seed and bud (i.e. rhizome) production.  Intended as a foraging grass for North America, Smooth brome has invaded the northern Great Plains and is threatening native prairie species.  Traditional control methods have proven minimal or short-term effects and little has been studied pertaining to the belowground bud bank.  Since aboveground perennial grasses population dynamics is strongly driven by the pattern of vegetative reproduction via bud bank, our objective is to determine the bud bank dynamics of smooth brome in response to three mowing strategies with expectation of decreasing its prevalence and persistence.  The experiment was a complete random block design with 4 mowing treatments including mowing once, twice, and three times when the last elongated node reaches mowing height plus control.  Each treatment had 4 replications.  Growth stage and density of smooth brome within two 0.1m2 subplots were recorded every three weeks after each treatment.  Three tillers were randomly selected from each treatment plot and excavated to determine bud density and the viability.  Bud density was determined by bud numbers per tiller multiple by tiller density per unit area.  Viability was determined by double staining procedure.   Growth stage of each tiller was examined to determine the relationship between growth stage and bud production and outgrowth.