Butterflies that favor this plant as a larval host include:

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)

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.

Sideoats grama is the state grass of Texas. Tewa, Zuni and Hopi make tools such as brooms and brushes out of the stems; Hopi use 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. Bouteloua named for brothers Claudio (1774-1842) and Esteban (1776-1813) Boutelou Agraz, Spanish botanists and horticulturalists. The species epithet comes from Latin curtus "shortened" and pendulus "hanging".

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. It is currently listed as a threatened species in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is considered as an endangered species in Connecticut.