Sideoats Grama
Bouteloua curtipendula
Family: Poaceae
Large, often rhizomatous, perennial grass, can be tufted or not, reaching almost 4’ tall. This grass is deciduous and will turn brown in winter. Basal foliage often turns shades of purple and red in the fall. Largest and coarsest of the grama grasses.
Full to part sun, best on irrigation but can exist in areas where water collects naturally without extra. Reseed readily.
Tewa, Zuni and Hopi made tools such as brooms and brushes out of the stems; Hopi used the fibers for basketry; used medicinally and ceremonially by the Ramah Navajo; seeds used to make porridge and bread, and even as a cash crop by the White Mountain Apache.
Photo by Cecelia Alexander, SEINET
Bouteloua curtipendula on iNaturalist
Sideoats grama is highly palatable and nutritious and readily eaten by all classes of livestock and wildlife. Like most grasses this plant hosts a lot of butterfly larvae, but most especially the following species:
Many-Spotted Skipperling (Piruna aea ssp. mexicana)
Oslar's Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes oslari)
Elissa Roadside-Skipper (Amblyscirtes elissa)
Morrison's Skipper (Stinga morrisoni)
White-barred Skipper (Atrytonopsis pittacus)
Sheep Skipper (Atrytonopsis edwardsi)
Bouteloua named for brothers Claudio (1774-1842) and Esteban (1776-1813) Boutelou Agraz, Spanish botanists and horticulturalists; Curtipendula is Latin for shortened hanging pendant. There are 57 species of Bouteloua found only in the Americas, with most diversity centered in the southwestern United States.
Found in open grasslands, limestone outcrops, rocky slopes, woodlands and forest openings from 2,500-7,000 ft. in much of North America, especially common in the Great Plains and Southwest; from Canada south through Mexico to western South America.
Floral detail, photo by Paul Rothrock, SEINET
Groups of this grass can capture the light wonderfully, photo by Max Licher, SEINET