General: Side-oats Gramma (Bouteloua curtipendula) is a perennial, medium-height, spindly, upright grass that grows in individual clumps (bunches) in the deserts around Las Vegas. The flowering stalks have many (to 60) inflorescence branches, and each inflorescence branch has up to 8 spikelets (flowers and seeds). All of the spikelets tend to fall off to one side of the flowering stalks.
Side-oats Gramma is an uncommon component of vegetation associations in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones. |