1. Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt.) Engelm. (buffalo grass)
Pl. 142
f–h; Map 575
Plants perennial, dioecious (rarely monoecious elsewhere),
creeping widely by stolons, low‑growing and forming dense mats consisting
of small clumps connected by the stolons. Flowering stems erect, glabrous,
those of staminate plants 10–20 cm long, those of pistillate plants 2–5 cm
long. Leaf sheaths rounded on the back, glabrous or sparsely hairy near the
tip, the ligule a line or band of hairs. Leaf blades 1–10 cm long, 1–2 mm wide,
flat, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Staminate inflorescences with 1–4 spikes
arranged pinnately along the axis, held above and not hidden by the leaves,
ascending, all appearing lateral. Staminate spikes 0.6–1.5 cm long, with 6–12
spikelets in 2 rows along 1 side of the flattened axis, these usually
persistent on the axis or sometimes eventually disarticulating above the
glumes, with 2 staminate florets. Glumes of staminate spikelets 1–3‑nerved,
unawned or very short‑awned at the tip, glabrous, the lower glume 1.5–3.0
mm long and narrowly lanceolate, the upper glume 2.0–4.5 mm long and broadly
lanceolate. Lemmas of staminate florets 3–5 mm long, lanceolate, 3‑nerved,
sharply pointed but unawned at the tip, glabrous. Anthers 2.2–3.5 mm long,
reddish orange. Pistillate inflorescences with the spikelets enclosed in 2(3)
hardened, burlike clusters (actually highly modified spikes) partially hidden
among the leaves, each with 2–5 spikelets, the burlike clusters shed intact as
a unit. Pistillate spikelets with 1 pistillate floret. Glumes of pistillate
spikelets very unequal in size and shape, the lower glume 0.5–4.0 mm long or
sometimes absent, lanceolate, 1‑nerved, membranous, not visible from
outside the burlike cluster, the upper glume, 5–6 mm long, hardened and
partially fused to the axis of the cluster (spike), ovate, with 3 erect,
awnlike, narrowly triangular teeth at the tip. Lemma of the pistillate florets
enclosed in the convex upper glume, 3.5–6.0 mm long, narrowly ovate, 3‑nerved,
the tip with 3 teeth, awnless. Palea of the pistillate florets 2‑nerved.
Fruits 2.0–2.3 mm long, oblong‑ovate, brown. 2n=20, 40, 60.
May–August.
Uncommon in the Glaciated Plains Division in
northwesternmost Missouri and introduced sporadically elsewhere in the state
(Minnesota to Montana south to Louisiana and Arizona). Loess hill prairies;
also roadsides, railroads, and open, disturbed areas.
Buffalo grass is an important and widespread range grass in the
Great Plains, where it is considered an excellent native forage species.
Recently, this species has gained popularity as a lawn grass in full sun for
golf courses, highway rest areas, and commercial and residential plantings. It
is drought resistant and, because of its low stature, requires little mowing.
Many of the cultivars currently sold as seeds, plugs, or sod are “male‑sterile”
lines, in which no staminate plants are produced, because pistillate plants
have shorter flowering stems than do staminate ones.