Bouteloua curtipendula #1 (Sideoats Grama)

Sideoats Grama is a native warm-season bunchgrass which has a wide distribution from southern Canada to Mexico. It is easy to please on infertile, dry, rocky soils in full sun. It tolerates a moderate amount of shade, but will spread faster and look fuller in more sun. It can be used as a native, delightfully wild-looking replacement for turf grass. Clumps of this grass will wander around by shallow rhizomes, sprouting new clumps nearby. It can be mown once a month during the growing season for a more maintained, slightly irregular lawn look, or it can be used as a framework for a “pocket prairie” when interplanted with low-growing wildflowers. Sideoats Grama does not compete well with larger prairie grasses, but it does have a strong root system which descends six feet beneath the soil to find moisture and nutrients.

The seed heads of this grass have a delicate, pendulous quality. The flowers and the seeds they become hang from one-sided racemes, giving this species its common name. The seeds provide food and nesting material for birds and the plant is a larval host to several species of skippers.

Sources:
Native Ferns, Moss, & Grasses by William Cullina
Missouri Botanical Garden
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
USDA FEIS
Grow Native
National Park Service