Santa Fe Botanical Garden

Common name: blue grama, mosquito grass, navajita común, grama, navajita común, grama

Family: Poaceae (Grass)

Synonym: Chondrosum gracile

Distribution: North America

Habitat: Prairies, plains, pastures, roadsides

Hardiness: USDA Zone 3 (-40 to -30 °F)

Life form: Grasses

Occurrence in New Mexico: New Mexico native plant

Growing Conditions: Blue grama was a dominant grass of the short-grass prairies of the Midwest, and remains the largest and most extensive type of grassland in New Mexico. This is the state grass of New Mexico, and is found in every county, growing at elevations less than 4,000 feet to more than 10,000 feet, in plains, grasslands, and open woodlands. Blue grama is often planted as a turfgrass, mixed with buffalograss, and in wildflower meadows. It is one of the most important forage grasses in native ranges. It grows easily in well-drained, low organic content, gravelly soils or sandy loams. It tolerates a wide variety of soils, including clays, calcareous or granitic soils. It does not do well in poorly drained, wet soils. It grows easily from seed and freely self-seeds. It has a deep, fibrous root system and is perhaps the most drought-tolerant native turf grass, surviving with as little as 7 inches of annual rainfall. In its southerly, drier range, it grows in clumps, but with more water, its rhizomes will form a solid mat. It should be cut to the ground in late winter before new shoots appear. During drought, it should be left to grow tall to shade its roots.

Description: Blue grama is a warm-season, low-growing bunchgrass that grows 12-15 inches tall. The stems are erect or horizontal and rising at the lower stem node, and often rooting at the nodes. The leaf blades are thin, 1-6 inches long, pale green, sometimes with a few long white hairs along the edge, and mostly basal. They dry to a golden tan color in fall. The flowering stems arch above the foliage. Each has 1-3 stalked, comb-like, 1-3-inch long branches with 40-130 spikelets (grass flower structures) densely arranged in 2 rows on one side of the raceme. Spikelets are green to purple, each with one sterile and one fertile floret. As the florets mature and the spike branch dries, it curls back (recurves), resembling an eyebrow, and persists into winter.