Black Grama
Bouteloua eriopoda
Family: Poaceae
Perennial, often rhizomatous, grass with long densely woolly-pubesent stolons to 2’ tall. Its main means of reproduction is by stolons, as its ratio of viable seeds to sterile ones is naturally low. The disparity may play a role in its lack of tolerance to overgrazing (relative to other grasses), but aside from this B. eriopoda is a good forage food for livestock. Flowers July to October.
Distinguished by its erect to laying-down (decumbent) growth form; spreading and wiry stems rhizomes, and often long stolons, which are woolly. A quite useful diagnostic character when the plant is matured and dry are the dark colored internodes covered by silvery-pubescence, alternating along the stem with the straw-colored, non-hairy leaf sheaths; when fresh, the internodes are green and covered with silvery pubescence, and the leaf sheaths are green and non-hairy. Also helpful are the 14-50 mm long inflorescence branches which have tufts of hair at the bases and are relatively slender when compared with other perennial Boutelouas.
Full to part sun, best on irrigation in low desert.
Black grama is a choice forage grass grazed by all livestock. It is cut for hay on some ranges in wet seasons.
Photo by Sue Carnahan, SEINET
Bouteloua eludens on iNaturalist
Many bee species collect the pollen of many species of grasses. All can be used for desert tortoise enclosures, though the more spreading types are better for keeping up with a tortoise appetite.
Grasses also play an important role in the ecology of soil, and because they are monocots, they can be planted close to other species of plants (the nature of the root systems of monocots renders them less imposing on neighboring plants). They hold soil down and help prevent erosion. Many species are pioneer plants that convert disturbed soils into hospitable places for other plants.
Bouteloua named for brothers Claudio (1774-1842) and Esteban (1776-1813) Boutelou Agraz, Spanish botanists and horticulturalists; eriopoda means woolly-footed. There are 57 species of Bouteloua found only in the Americas, with most diversity centered in the southwestern United States.
Dry sandy plains, foothills, rocky slopes, forested slopes, often in shrubby habitats and in waste ground from 3500-8500 ft. in southeastern California, southern Nevada, southern Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, southern Colorado and western Texas; south into northern Mexico.
A healthy stand of black grama in the Verde Valley, photo by Max Licher, SEINET
Details on the seed spike, photo by Danika Setaro, iNaturalist
A picture of a patch with fresh floral spikes shows where the name "black grama" comes from, as the floral spikes are very dark. Photo by uyarbrough, iNaturalist