Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

SIDE-OATS GRAMA

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Bouteloua curtipendula (Michx. ) Torr.

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 10 - 40 inches

Family: Poaceae - Grass Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September

Culms:

Erect, solid, glabrous, purplish at nodes, arising in clumps or few together.

Blades:

Numerous, flat, 2-12 inches long, less than 1/5 inch wide, glabrous below, rough above; margins with hairs arising from tiny blister-like bumps, particularly near ligules.

Sheaths:

Usually shorter than internodes, finely ridged, glabrous below or soft-hairy near summit.

Ligules:

Fringed or notched membranes, short.

Inflorescences:

Panicles, 3-16 inches long; branches 12-60, 1/2 to 3/4 inch long, angled to 1 side of slightly zigzag rachis, flag-like.

Spikelets:

3-8 per branch; florets 2 per spikelet, 1 perfect, 1 imperfect; glumes unequal; lemmas with 3 short, unequal awns.

Habitat:

Rocky hillsides and dry, open grassland, in fine-textured limestone or chalk soils.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas.

Forage Value:

Side-oats grama is a high-quality and nutritious forage readily consumed by livestock. It makes good hay and tolerates drought well.

Comments:

Rhizomatous. "Side-oats" refers to the small, oat-like clusters of florets that hang uniformly on 1 side of the stem. Side-oats grama is the state grass of Texas.

Side-oats grama