Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Poales > Poaceae > Schizachyrium > Schizachyrium scoparium

Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Schizachyrium scoparium, commonly known as little bluestem or beard grass, is a North American prairie grass native to most of the United States, except California, Nevada, and Oregon, and a small area north of the Canada–US border. Its greatest manifestation has always been in the Midwestern prairies. Little bluestem is a perennial bunchgrass and is prominent in tallgrass prairie, along with big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). It is a warm-season species, meaning it employs the C4 photosynthetic pathway.
View Wikipedia Record: Schizachyrium scoparium

Infraspecies

Schizachyrium scoparium var. gracile
Schizachyrium scoparium var. scoparium

Attributes

Bloom Period [1]  Summer
Drought Tolerance [1]  High
Fire Tolerance [1]  Medium
Frost Free Days [1]  3 months 10 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [1]  Medium
Fruit/Seed Begin [1]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [1]  Fall
Growth Form [1]  Bunch
Growth Period [1]  Summer, Fall
Growth Rate [1]  Moderate
Leaf Type [1]  Deciduous
Lifespan [1]  Perennial
Propagation [1]  Seed
Regrowth Rate [1]  Moderate
Root Depth [1]  14 inches (36 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [1]  Moderate
Seed Vigor [1]  Low
Seeds Per [1]  240670 / lb (530586 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [1]  Erect
Structure [2]  Grass
Vegetative Spread Rate [1]  None
Flower Color [1]  Yellow
Foliage Color [1]  Gray-Green
Fruit Color [1]  Brown
Height [1]  35 inches (0.9 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 3 Low Temperature: -40 F° (-40 C°) → -30 F° (-34.4 C°)
Light Preference [1]  Full Sun
Soil Acidity [1]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [1]  Infertile
Water Use [1]  Low
Screening - Summer [1]  Dense
Screening - Winter [1]  Porous

Protected Areas

Habitat Vegetation Classification

Name Location  Website 
Atlantic Coastal Plain Longleaf Sandhill Scrub United States (South Carolina, North Carolina)
Atlantic Coastal Plain Subxeric Sandy Longleaf Pine - Pond Pine Ecotonal Woodland United States (North Carolina, South Carolina)
Atlantic Inner Coastal Plain Yellow Sand Longleaf Pine Woodland United States (South Carolina, Georgia)
Fall-line Sandhills Dry Longleaf Pine Woodland United States (North Carolina, South Carolina)
Florida Red Hills Submesic Longleaf Pine Woodland United States (Georgia, Florida)
Georgia Dry Longleaf Pine - Scrub Oak Sand Woodland United States (Georgia)
Georgia Outer Coastal Plain Subxeric Longleaf Pine Woodland United States (Georgia)
Georgia Xeric Fall-line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland United States (Georgia)
Longleaf Pine / Scrub Oak Sandhill (Northern Type) United States (Virginia, North Carolina)
South Atlantic Coastal Plain Dry Longleaf Pine Sandhill United States (Florida)
South Atlantic Dry Longleaf Pine Sandhill United States (South Carolina, Georgia)
South Atlantic Sandhills Subxeric Silty Longleaf Pine Woodland United States (South Carolina, Georgia)
South Carolina Central Longleaf Woodland United States (Georgia, South Carolina)
Southern Inner Coastal Plain Silty Longleaf Pine / Sand Post Oak Woodland United States (South Carolina, Georgia)
Wiregrass Gap Xeric Longleaf Pine Sand Woodland United States (South Carolina)
Xeric Upper East Gulf Coastal Plain Longleaf Pine Woodland United States (South Carolina, Georgia)

Emblem of

Nebraska

Predators

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 2Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 3Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 4Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 5Butterflies of Canada, Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0