Genus: Bouteloua
Species: gracilis

Blue grama grass is a warm season tufted perennial grass. It is native to the short and tall grass prairies.

Blue grama can grow up to 18 inches tall. It grows as a bunch grass, forming open sod mats. As it matures and is grazed on by animals, the bunches grow together and form the thick sod. Blue grama is an important prairie grass because its dense, shallow root mass holds down the soil and keeps it from blowing away like it did during the Dust Bowl Era in the 1930s. Because the root system is shallow it can quickly absorb any rain that might fall.

Blue grama is 6 to 12 (15-30 cm) inches high. It has flat leaves that come to a point at the end. The leaves can grow from 1 to 10 inches (2.5-25 cm) long and 1/8 inch (3 mm) wide.

When plowed under, or otherwise disturbed, it can take blue grama grass as long as 50 years to re-establish itself.

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