Bouteloua gracilis (Willd. ex Kunth) Lag. ex Griffiths

vernacular blue grama — species · Poaceae

USDA: BOGR2
GBIF: 7861320
Rank: species

blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) — Platephotograph · Matt BergerCC BY source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Graminoid
Duration: Perennial
Group: Monocot
Family: Poaceae Barnhart
Genus: Bouteloua

§2a

Native status, by region

CAN Canada Native
L48 Lower 48 States Native

§2b

County-level range

· 17 counties across 1 state

Legend Native · 17 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: High
Shade: High
Moisture use: Medium
Fire: High
Salinity: Medium
Anaerobic: None
CaCO₃: Medium
Hedging: None

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -43 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 142 min.
Precipitation: 8–22 in/yr
pH range: 6.6–8.4
Root depth: 16 in min.
Fertility need: Low
Soil texture: coarse, medium, fine

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Bunch
Growth rate: Rapid
Lifespan: Moderate
Mature height: 1 ft
Foliage texture: Medium
Foliage colour: Gray-Green
Porosity (summer): Moderate
Porosity (winter): Porous
Flower colour: Yellow
Fruit colour: Brown
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: None
Toxicity: None

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Early Summer
Seed abundance: High
Seed begins: Summer
Seed ends: Summer
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: No
Seeds / lb: 724,400
Propagation: seed

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: Routinely Available
Nursery stock: No
Browse palatability: High
Graze palatability: High
Palatable, human: No
Protein potential: Medium
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 17 counties across 1 state.

Montana view state ↗ 17 N ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/BOGR2 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/7861320 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25

fetched 2026-05-25T18:27:19Z