Yellow Bluestem (Bothriochloa ischaemum)

Origin:  
Use: Perennial, warm season, introduced grass that provides good grazing for wildlife and livestock.
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Plant Description:
General  Characteristics of Yellow Bluestem
Life Span  Perennial
Growth Form  Moderate height, semi-erect, bunchgrass
Management:
Seeding Rate 
40" Rows:  Broadcast: 


0.6 pound pure live seed per acre
1.8 pounds pure live seed per acre
Planting Date  March-May
Planting Depth less than 0.25 inch
pH requirement 5.0 to 8.5
Rainfall requirement 16 to 30 inches
Soil texture
Sandy: 
Loam: 
Clay: 

Moderate
High
Moderate
Cold Tolerance: High
General  Provides good grazing for wildlife and livestock.
ID Features:
Habit: 		Tufted perennial.
Culms: 		Erect or ascending, 60-130 cm. tall, often branching below, nodes from appressed hispid to glabrous.
Blades: 	5-16 cm. long, 3-6 mm. wide, commonly glaucous, glabrous or upper surface and margins somewhat rough.
Sheaths: 	Shorter than the internodes.
Ligule: 	Membranous, 1-2 mm. long.
Inflorescence: 	Panicle long-exserted or those of the branches short-exserted, at first narrow and green,
		finally somewhat spreading, becoming silvery white, silky, dense, oblong, mostly 7-15 cm. long, made up of
		numerous racemes 2-4 cm. long, the common axis mostly at least twice as long, but readily breaking;
		rachis straight, the joints and pedicels flat, with thick bearded margins, the center subhyaline,
		bearing a sessile fertile and a pedicellate rudimentary spikelet in pairs, rachis internodes and
		pedicels long villous.
Spikelets: 	About 4 mm. long, pedicellate spikelet reduced to a single scale 2-3 mm. long on a villous
		pedicel about 2 mm. long, the hairs 4-6 mm. long.
Glumes: 	The first several nerved, 2-toothed, villous on the lower half at the base, ciliate on the
		margins at and near the apex, scabrous towards the apex, the second 3-nerved, ciliate at or near the apex.
Lemmas: 	All about equal, that of the fertile spikelet with a delicate bent awn 10-15 mm. long, twisted below.
Habitat: 	Plains, prairies and rocky slopes, especially in limestone areas.  June-August.
Synonyms:	Bothriochloa saccharoides (Sw.) Rydb.
Special Notes:
 
 
Regional Adaptation
Variety
Coast Saline Prairie
Coast Prairie
East Texas Timberlands
Claypan Area
Blackland Prairie
East Cross Timbers
West Cross Timbers
Grand Prairie
North Central Prairies
Central Basin
Edwards Plateau
Northern Rio Grande Plain
Western Rio Grande Plain
Central Rio Grande Plain
Lower Rio Grande Valley
Rolling Plains
High Plains
Trans-Pecos
Plains
 
 
X
X
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X
 
Ganada
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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WW Spar
 
 
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X
X
X
 
 
 
 
 
 
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WW Ironmaster
 
 
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X
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X
X
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X
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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X