Bouteloua hirsuta Lag.

Hairy Grama

Bouteloua_hirsuta_plant.jpg
STATS

Native
CC = 10
CW = 5
MOC = 5

© DETenaglia

Family - Poaceae/Cynodonteae

Stems - No info yet.

Bouteloua_hirsuta_node.jpg Node of stem.

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Leaves - No info yet.

Bouteloua_hirsuta_leaf_base.jpg Leaf base.

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Bouteloua_hirsuta_ligule.jpg Arrow shows the small ligule.

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Inflorescence - No info yet.

Bouteloua_hirsuta_inflorescence.jpg

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Bouteloua_hirsuta_spike.jpg

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Flowers - No info yet.

Bouteloua_hirsuta_spikelets.jpg

© DETenaglia

Bouteloua_hirsuta_spike2.jpg Different angle of the spikelets showing the long hairs present.

© DETenaglia

Flowering - July - September.

Habitat - Loess hill prairies and sand prairies.

Origin - Native to U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Other info. - This little species is extremely uncommon in Missouri and can only be found in the loess hills of the northwestern corner of the state. The plant is more common in the Great Plains of North America.
B. hirsuta can be identified by its habitat, small size, densely hairy spikelets (which have long, pustulate-based hairs), and the axis of the spike is continued well beyond the spikelets as a spiny projection. Another species, B. gracilis (Kunth) Lag. ex Griffiths, can have short hairs on the spikelets but the spikes do not appear "fuzzy" as they do in B. hirsuta.

Photographs taken at the Jamerson C. McCormack Conservation Area, Holt County, MO., 8-12-06.