Grass Description
Found in open grasslands, limestone outcrops, rocky slopes, woodlands and forest openings.
General Description
Tufted, erect grass, which forms wiry clumps. Purplish, oat-like spikelets on one side of the seedhead stem, bleaches to tan in the fall. Basal foliage often turns shades of purple and red in the fall. Largest and coarsest of the grama grasses.
Tufted perennial, erect stems, short rhizomes. Sheaths are rounded, ligule short membranous and hairy. Leaves mostly flat, <8 inches long, hairs on margin near collar. Seedhead of short branches; spikelets one-sided, awnless or with very short awns.
Flower Characteristics
Seedhead has 20 to 50 short deciduous branches off the main seedhead stem, each of which bears 3 to 8 spikelets. Spikelets have 1 fertile floret and 1 sterile floret; awns are absent or very short. Lemmas 3-veined, veins extend to <1/4 inch awns.
Vegetative Characteristics
Leaves are flat, 1 to 12 inches long and <1/4 inch wide. Leaves have hairs on the margins of the blades near the collar.
Sideoats grama is highly palatable and nutritious and readily eaten by all classes of livestock and wildlife.