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Native Grasses Page 6 IMPORTANT NATIVE GRASSES OF COLORADO The ranges of Colorado are not all alike. They vary according to temperature, altitude, soil and precipitation. Each different situation, in regard to those elemenu, produces a different association of range plants. Ranges may be divided according to the kind of plants that should grow on them. Such a division, according to the association of plants, is called a "range site." The grosses' illustrated on the following pages represent only a portion of those found on the many varied Colorado range sites. They were chosen on the basis of their relative abundance and to portray the grass types to be found in the state as you progress tirom the eastern border across the plains, through the foothills, over the mountains, and down the western slope to the rolling uplands and salt desert ranges near the Utah line. Source of prints: Range Plant Handbook, prepazed by U.S.D.A. Forest Service Manual of Grasses of the Unitas States, by A. S. Hitchcock, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1951. Charts of Grass Parts by A. C. Everson, Colorado State University. Charts by the Soil Conservation Service. 1. Buffalo grass (Buchloe dact~~loides Warm season, short grass, associated with blue grams and western wheatgrass on the heav}~ te:mued "hazdlands" of the plains. Produces a fair amount of forage: for summer and winter grazing. Forage is high in nutrients even after maturity (cures well). Reproduces by stolons and form:; dense mats or small patches. Female flowers are enclosed in the leaves and form burr-like fruit. Male flowers art: one or two one- sided spikes on 2- to 3-inch culms. Some plants have only female flowers, some have only male flowers, and others have both male and female flowers. The leaf blades aze gray green, short, tend to :url, and have a few short, straight hairs on the mazgins. [,eaves are in clusters at the nodes of the stolons.