This week: Bluestem grasses
Hello!
Recently I visited Davidson Mesa in Louisville, Colorado, a public open space with trails winding through a native grassland prairie. The mesa’s grassland was relatively undisturbed other than livestock grazing before it was officially protected in the 1980s, which makes it a great example of an established prairie featuring grasses like big bluestem, little bluestem, side oats grama, and thread-and-needle grass. It’s also home to native wildflowers like sunflower, liatris, coneflower, mullien, and yucca—to name just a few plants that I was able to identify.
The stars of the show during my October visit, though? The mesa’s bluestem grasses. In the fall, big and little bluestem both turn a brilliant red that stands out among the other grasses and flowers. In the spring and summer the grass is blue-green, hence the descriptive common name. In the photo below, you can see the color begin to change from blue-green to red.
If you’re wondering why I’m going on about some prairie grasses out in Colorado when my garden is in Pennsylvania, you might be surprised to learn that bluestem grasses are native to most of the United States. Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) has a range that starts at the east coast and extends to cover two-thirds of the United States and Canada, and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) is present in all but two western states.
The photographs I took along the trail look to be mostly little bluestem, though it’s hard to tell because I wasn’t able to get too close. When identifying, height is a tell-tale sign. Little bluestem grows 2-4 feet tall and big bluestem can grow as much as 8 feet tall. In addition to its recognizable height, big bluestem is identifiable by a 3-pronged seed head that is said to look like a turkey foot.
In the home garden, little bluestem is the more manageable of the two to grow. You can find cultivars and straight species online and sometimes even locally. Little bluestem is also a larval host plant for several skippers, and is a food source for birds.
Elsewhere:
Ever hear the chirps of insects at night and wish you could identify them by sound? A Penn State University student recently published an online identification guide to night singing insects.
One Year Ago:
Fothergilla’s fall colors make this native shrub a three-season stunner.
Have a great week,
Julie