Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

BUFFALO GRASS

File Size: 148 KB

Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt. ) Engelm.

Ottawa County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 2-8 inches

Family: Poaceae - Grass Family

Flowering Period: May, June

Culms:

Erect or decumbent, slender, solid, shorter on female plants than on male plants; nodes glabrous; internodes flattened.

Blades:

Flat, 1 to 5 inches long, sparsely hairy.

Sheaths:

Loose, glabrous except for a few marginal hairs near collars.

Ligules:

Membranous, fringed with hairs.

Inflorescences:

Inflorescences of staminate plants panicles; branches 2-5, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, flag-like; inflorescences of pistillate plants bur-like, 1-3, almost hidden among leaves.

Spikelets:

Spikelets of staminate plants 6-12 per branch, arranged in 2 rows; florets 2 per spikelet; spikelets of pistillate plants 2-5; florets 1 per spikelet; second glume and lemma awned.

Habitat:

Exposed, well-drained sites on medium to fine textured soils. Will not tolerate shade.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas.

Forage Value:

Livestock readily graze buffalo grass, except during dry spells when it goes dormant. It can furnish good winter grazing. Buffalo grass protects itself from being overgrazed by producing its leaves very close to the ground.

Comments:

Sod-forming, dioecious (male and female flowers occur on separate plants); stolons 2 to 24 inches long, creeping, rooting at nodes. The foliage turns reddish brown after frost.

Buffalo grass often grows with blue grama(Bouteloua gracilis).

Buffalo grass stolons