By Max Kornetzke, land manager
Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) is one of the dominant bunchgrasses of the Great Plains shortgrass prairie biome, but its distribution spans much wider across most of the United States, southern Canada, and down into central Mexico.
In Wisconsin you can find this grass on dry prairies, old fields, and even on roadsides in dry, rocky soils. Little bluestem is also a common grass along the Lakeshore Dunes system where it plays an important role stabilizing inner dunes.
In the late winter months this iconic prairie grass brings visual interest to the landscape with its soft rusty colored foliage still contrasting the more common hues of beige, brown, and gray. Often the fluffy seeds persist throughout the dormant season giving them a pleasant, soft texture.
As a warm season grass, Little Bluestem won’t start to grow until daytime temperatures are consistently warm, usually around the last frost. The warm season’s temperatures will bring forth fine textured blades of blue-green foliage from the base of the bunches. The blades won’t grow much higher than a few inches in the first half of summer, which makes a nice low growing matrix for native wildflowers to mingle amongst.
As late summer hums, the bunches will send up one-to-two-foot flowering stalks that are mottled with blues, greens, purples and delicate maroon flowers. Eventually the cooler autumn days approach and the shade shifts to a brilliant rusty red.
Amongst these colorful bunches, you will encounter native ground nesting bees finding refuge and grasshoppers playing lullabies. Caterpillars of skipper butterflies and moths will use this host plant as food to grow, and other small creatures will hide within the foliage. All while, below the root system of this species reaches deep within the earth, building and stabilizing soil by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere into the ground.
Little Bluestem is a graceful, versatile, and low maintenance plant that provides year-round beauty and ecological benefits. It would be a wonderful addition to any nature lover’s landscape.
photo of Little Bluestem by Max Kornetzke