Red Grama
Bouteloua trifida
Family: Poaceae
Tufted, perennial grass reaching a bit over a foot tall. This is a warm-season grass that goes dormant in winter. Flowers March-June. Distinctive among the Bouteloua with its purplish 3-awned lemmas.
Full to part sun, best on irrigation in low desert.
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. All grasses provide as larval hosts to many grass generalist Lepidoptera, especially species of skippers. This species especially known to host Orange Skipperling (Oarisma aurantiaca) and the Pahaska Skipper (Hesperia pahaska). This species increases in overgrazed ranges. It persists under heavy grazing and low moisture because its growth area and basal leaves are so close to the ground that livestock simply cannot get to more than 50% of the plant tissue.
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; trifida means cleft into three parts, referring to the 3-awned lemmas. There are 57 species of Bouteloua found only in the Americas, with most diversity centered in the southwestern United States.
Found on dry open plains and rocky slopes from 2,000-5,000 ft. in southern California and southern Nevada, east to Texas; south to northern Mexico.
The flower spikes and sometimes the whole plant are reddish when freshly grown. Notice the three awns on each lemna. Photo by Steve Matson, iNaturalist
This is a somewhat dainty species, photo by Joey Santore, iNaturalist