GRASSES IN YOUR POCKET--tips for identifying the grasses of the Midwest

Green Needlegrass
Nassella viridula

Native. May-Jul. Rare. Dry prairies, grasslands, open woods, sandy soils. 35-120 cm, 1-4 ft high. Spikelets plumper than in Hesperostipa, base blunt, awns 19-32 mm long.

IA, (IL), MN, (WI)




Indiangrass
Sorghastrum nutans

Native. Late Jul-Oct. Common. Dry to moist prairies. 50-240 cm. 1.5-8 ft high. Flowering heads rusty red-brown; spikelets hairy, bases rounded; awns 10-22 mm long.

IA, IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI

From the Bur Oak Guide Grasses in Your Pocket, by Anna B. Gardner, Michael Hurst, Deborah Lewis, and Lynn G. Clark

GRASSES IN YOUR POCKET--tips for identifying the grasses around you

Having trouble identifying grasses in and around Iowa? The Bur Oak Guide Grasses in Your Pocket, by Anna B. Gardner, Michael Hurst, Deborah Lewis and Lynn G. Clark, will help you do just that.

 Beadgrass, thin paspalum
Paspalum setaceum
Native. Jul-Sep. Infrequent to more frequent south. Sand prairies. 25-110 cm, 1-4 ft high. Spikelets all on one side of branches, round in outline, one side flat, one side convex.

IA, IL, IN (MI), (MN), OH, WI

Eastern gamagrass

Tripsacum dactyloides

Native. Jun-Oct. Rare. Wetter areas, limestone outcrops. 100-200 cm, 3-7 ft high. Rhizomes short, knotty; basal part of flowering head branches beadlike.

IA, IL, (IN), (MI), (OH)

Hot off the Press: GRASSES IN YOUR POCKET

The University of Iowa Press is proud to announce the release of Grasses in Your Pocket: A Guide to the Prairie Grasses of the Upper Midwest, by Anna B. Gardner, Michael Hurst, Deborah Lewis, and Lynn G. Clark.

At the time of European settlement, tallgrass prairie was the iconic landscape in much of the Upper Midwest. Although its extent has been drastically reduced, intact prairie remnants exist, prairies species persist along roadsides, and interest in prairie reconstruction has increased. The basic prairie matrix is formed by grasses, yet their diversity and beauty are often under-appreciated because their flowering structures are highly reduced to aid in wind pollination. This much-needed addition to Iowa's popular series of laminated guides—the twenty-sixth in the series—illustrates fifty-five grass species characteristic of or commonly found on prairies of the Upper Midwest states of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

The authors have organized species into groups by their most easily noted field characteristics. Are the flowering heads branched or unbranched? Are the branches dense, narrow, or fingerlike? For each species, its native or exotic status is followed by the months of flowering, abundance, general habitat, height, diagnostic features, geographic range, and, if relevant, threatened or endangered status.

Even amateur naturalists can identify big and little bluestem and prairie dropseed in the field, but both professional and amateur naturalists find certain grasses harder to identify, especially the less common or rare species such as cluster fescue and sand reedgrass. The photographs and descriptions in Grasses in Your Pocket will be an invaluable reference for ourdoor expeditions in midwestern grasslands.