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Little Bluestem
(Schizachyrium scoparium)
By Ann Black and Jeff Sparks

Little Bluestem is a warm-season, perennial bunchgrass that is an important species of the shortgrass, midgrass and tallgrass prairies. Little Bluestem is one of Texas’ most important native grasses found in Texas, and one of the “big four” tall grass species along with Big Bluestem, Switch Grass and Indiangrass. The scientific name scoparium comes from a Greek word meaning broom-like, referring to the stiffly bunched stems. The term bunchgrass refers to a type of grass that has many stems arising from one set of fine, fibrous roots. There are five varieties of Little Bluestem in Texas, the most common being S. scoparium scoparium. Habitat: Little Bluestem grows throughout Texas on diverse soils types including sand, loam, clay or caliche. It can be found not only in prairies, but also in savannahs, on rocky hillsides, and even under open mixed pine-hardwood forests.

Little Bluestem is often associated with Big Bluestem and Indiangrass in deep soils of the Oak Woods & Prairies; with Indiangrass and Sideoats Grama on the Edwards Plateau and Rolling Plains; and with the Paspalums on the Coastal Prairie. 

Description: Growth begins as a blue-green tuft of leaves in the spring. This blue-green color stands out against the light and bright green growth of other spring grasses, and is what gives little bluestem its name. The individual flat, hairless leaves are 8 to 25 cm long, 2-6mm wide and have tapering tips. By mid to late summer, the stems or culms begin to grow upward and start to show their characteristic colors. At maturity, the sheaths between each node are red, and the stems between each sheath are green, thus giving Little Bluestem its well-known and distinctive “red, green, red, green” appearance. In the fall, especially after the first frost, its leaves turn to reddish brown. Little Bluestem grows 2 to 4 feet at maturity. The seed head adds another 1 to 2 feet in height. Roots reach 5 to 8 feet deep. Little Bluestem spreads primarily by seeds, not by rhizomes. It is important to note that height, presence of hairs, and stalk color can vary greatly across its Texas range

Wildlife Value and Ethnobotany: Little Bluestem is a good forage grass in the earlier part of the growing season. Domestic and wild animals prefer to eat little bluestem when the plant is very young and green. After it has matured and reached the end of its growing season, the plant is very coarse and animals will not eat it. Research indicates that burning will enhance its nutritional value by increasing crude protein values. Little Bluestem makes good hay, but consecutive years of haying will cause it to disappear from the area. Little Bluestem’s clumping form provides nesting cover for birds, including the bobwhite quail, and provide a larval food source for butterflies.

Native people rubbed the leaves until they were soft and used them as a fur-like insulation in moccasins during the winter. Bundles of stems were used as switches in sweat lodges. The ashes of its stems were used to treat syphilitic sores.