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Desert Grassland Plants:

Desert Grassland Plants:

Heteropogon contortus    
NP    Andropogoneae
USDA Plant Profile Tanglehead
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Spiklets are imbricate
B. Awns 5-12 cm., brown-black, bent and fexuous, twisted together
C. Leaf tip and base turn red at maturity
D. Glumes with white margins
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site: Well drained, coarse, rocky, sandy soils
Successional: Late
Response to: Fire - Moderate, not very resistant
  Drought - Moderate tolerance
   
Forage Value:
Animal Preference:     [    Good, especially before maturity
]      
  (cattle)     (sheep)     (big
game)    (other wildlife)
   
Response to Grazing: Increaser
   
Habitat Value: Good Cover, moderate forage
   
Additional Notes:
  • Reproduces from seeds and tillers
  • Relatively easy to establish from seed
  • Leaf tip and base turn red at maturity

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heco.jpg (20590 bytes)
heco2.jpg (32153 bytes)
heco3.jpg (29896 bytes)
heco4.jpg (15837 bytes)
Bouteloua
eriopoda          N P
Chlorideae
USDA Plant Profile Black Grama
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Culms white-lanate, mostly decumbent or stoloniferous
B. Spikes 3-5 per culm
C. Awns as long or longer than spiklets
D. Foliage mostly basal
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site: Coarse textured soils
Successional: Late / climax dominant
Response to: Fire - Poor, does not recover well after fire, if at all
  Drought - If prolonged, plant will not do well
   
Forage Value:
Animal Preference:     [
Excellent
]         
  (cattle)     (sheep)     (big
game)    (other wildlife)
   
Response to Grazing: Decreaser
   
Habitat Value:  
   
Additional Notes:
  • Suffrutescent, dies back but reponds rapidly to precipitation
  • Reproduces mainly from stolons and tillers. Is stoloniferous; lays down branches and
    sets out another set of leaves. The stolons on not actually root
  • Will from pure stands but drought and fire, both of which are common in this area, will
    create openings

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boer4.jpg (44132 bytes)
Hilaria belangeri
N P
Chlorideae
USDA Plant Profile Curly Mesquite
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Blades flat
B. Stoloniferous
C. Hairy nodes on stolons -- separates from Buda and Himu
D. Short awns
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site: Mid-texture soils, uplands. More common in the mountainous sections of the
desert grasslands.
Successional: Early
Response to: Fire - Susceptible to fall fires
  Drought - Tolerant, has physiological adaptations
   
Forage Value:
Animal Preference:      [
Low
]       
  (cattle)     (sheep)     (big
game)    (other wildlife)
   
Response to Grazing: Increaser, invader, becomes dominant
   
Habitat Value: No cover value, and forage value is low.
   
Additional Notes:
  • Reproduces by stolon, can form extensive stands in areas of overgrazing
  • Warm season grass, initiates growth in May
  • Planted for erosion control

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hibe.jpg (17247 bytes)
hibe2.jpg (13896 bytes)
hibe3.jpg (6946 bytes)
hibe4.jpg (33409 bytes)
Hilaria jamesii
N P
Chlorideae
USDA Plant Profile Galletta Grass
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Glumes of spiklets not flabellate (fan-shaped), glumes of lateral spiklets
narrowed toward the summit
B. Nodes villous vs. pubescent in Himu
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site: Broad range, clayey to sandy loams. Mostly uplands, well drained sites
Successional: Late
Response to: Fire - Tolerant
  Drought - Tolerant
   
Forage Value: Good when green, uneaten when dry
   
Response to Grazing: Increaser, spreads by rhizomes and unpalatable when dry
Decreaser on a minority of sites
   
Habitat Value: Good cover value
   
Additional Notes:
  • Strong rhizomes, may form pure stands
  • High production, good for erosion control

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hija.jpg (26399 bytes)
hija2.jpg (18990 bytes)
hija3.jpg (29869 bytes)
hija4.jpg (15958 bytes)
Hilaria mutica
N P
Chlorideae
plprofile.gif (4407 bytes) Tobosagrass
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Hairy around spiklets
B. Strongly rhizomatous, not stoloniferous
C. Glumes translucent and flabellate
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site: Run-on sites, clayey fine textured soils
Successional: Late
Response to: Fire - Resistant
  Drought - Resistant
Forage Value:
Animal Preference:     [  Good when green, not
palatable when dry   ]        
  (cattle)     (sheep)     (big
game)    (other wildlife)
   
Response to Grazing: Increaser. The associate plants are generally more palatable, and tobosa
grass is fairly productive growing in run-on sites, allowing heavier utilization by
grazers
   
Additional Notes:
  • Will form dense, uniform stands
  • Good for restoration
  • Warm season, summer precipitation and growth

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himu.jpg (24849 bytes)
himu2.jpg (14082 bytes)
himu3.jpg (15789 bytes)
 
Eragrostis
curvula          PI
Eragrosteae
plprofile.gif (4407 bytes) Weeping Lovegrass
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Large bunchgrass, long tapering leaves
B. Large open panicle
C. Tuft of hair on the lowest panicle branches of the central axis
D. Short pedicels
E. Culm bases hairy
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site:  
Successional:  
Response to:  
   
Forage Value:
Animal Preference:  
   
Response to Grazing:  
   
Habitat Value:  
   
Additional Notes:
 

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ercu.jpg (23759 bytes)
ercu2.jpg (31781 bytes)
ercu3.jpg (16212 bytes)
ercu4.jpg (28124 bytes)
Muhlenbergia porteri          
NP        Eragrosteae
plprofile.gif (4407 bytes) Bush Muhly
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Panicle open, much branched, wiry, knotty base
B. Lemma purple with a delicate awn
C. Crooked (geniculate) culms, branched culms
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site:  
Successional:  
Response to:  
   
Forage Value:
Animal Preference:  
   
Response to Grazing:  
   
Habitat Value:  
   
Additional Notes:
 

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mupo.jpg (24751 bytes)
mupo2.jpg (21309 bytes)
mupo3.jpg (20577 bytes)
 
Muhlenbergii torreyi        N P
Eragrosteae
plprofile.gif (4407 bytes) Ring Muhly
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Panicle open with capillary branches
B. Blades short in basal cluster
C. Decumbent stems
D. Rhizomatous (white)
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site:  
Successional:  
Response to:  
   
Forage Value:
Animal Preference:  
   
Response to Grazing:  
   
Habitat Value:  
   
Additional Notes:
 

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muto.jpg (13243 bytes)
muto2.jpg (15725 bytes)
muto3.jpg (21630 bytes)
muto4.jpg (37567 bytes)
Scleropogon brevifolius          N
P           Eragrosteae
plprofile.gif (4407 bytes) Burrograss
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Culms erect, wiry stolons
B. Staminate and pistillate flowers, inserted
C. Three awns on female lemma (5-19 cm) loosely twisted
D. Leaves crowded at the base, blades flat, sharp-pointed
E. Staminate lemma awn-tipped
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site: Prefers fine textured soils; loamy to clayey.
Disturbance sites; due to awns and barbs the seed is easily scattered and distributed
Successional: Early
Response to: Fire - Rapidly re-established (2-3 years)
  Drought - Tolerant
   
Forage Value: Awns may cause eye irritation and contaminate wool
Animal Preference:      [
Poor
]       
  (cattle)     (sheep)     (big
game)    (other wildlife)
   
Response to Grazing: Increaser, invader
   
Habitat Value: Cover is low, this a short stature grass
   
Additional Notes:
  • Stolons wiry, creeping. Forms open mats
  • Reproduces from seed and stolon
  • Leaves mostly in basal cluster

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scbr3.jpg (41301 bytes)
scbr4.jpg (13890 bytes)
Sporobolus airoides
PN
Eragrosteae
plprofile.gif (4407 bytes) Alkali Sacaton
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Large robust, woody base
B. Sheath pilose at throat, ligule pilose
C. Leaves large, inrolled
D. Panicle pyramidal, stiff long right-angle branches
E. Glume tips obtuse
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site:  
Successional:  
Response to:  
   
Forage Value:
Animal Preference:  
   
Response to Grazing:  
   
Habitat Value:  
   
Additional Notes:
 

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spai.jpg (22923 bytes)
spai2.jpg (24796 bytes)
spai3.jpg (11370 bytes)
spai4.jpg (21373 bytes)
Digitaria californica
N P
Paniceae
plprofile.gif (4407 bytes) Arizona Cottontop
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Spiklets covered with long silky hairs (white)
B. Culms erect from knotty swollen pubescent bases
C. Collar pilose
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site:  
Successional:  
Response to:  
   
Forage Value:
Animal Preference:  
   
Response to Grazing:  
   
Habitat Value:  
   
Additional Notes:
 

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dica.jpg (27788 bytes)
dica2.jpg (14472 bytes)
dica3.jpg (23404 bytes)
dica4.jpg (25059 bytes)
Prosopis glandulosa
N P
Fabaceae
plprofile.gif (4407 bytes) Honey Mesquite
Identifying Characteristics:
A. Pinna paired, leaves even-bipinnately compound, alternate, with 6-30
leaflets
B. Branches armed with straight yellow thorns, usually in pairs (stipular
spines)
C. Flowers in drooping spike-like racemes (yellow-white)
D. Longe linear fruit (10-20 cm) legume, in clusters 2-3
E. Raised leaf scar*
   
Ecology:
Soils -- Site: Plains and prairies on dry, sandy or gravely soils
Successional: Late seral, is invading many areas. Potential dominant
Response to: Fire - Resprouts from base
  Drought - Tolerant due to two-tiered root system
 
Forage Value: Leguminous shrub high in proteins and digestibility
Animal Preference:    Good
Mule deer, antelope, insects
  (cattle)
(other wildlife)
   
Response to Grazing: Very tolerant due to resprouting
   
Habitat Value: Good cover value
   
Additional Notes:
  • Basal stem sprouter
  • Large bush, waist high up to 50 feet in arroys
  • Abundant in the Southwest

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