Bouteloua dactyloides (Buffalograss)

Buffalograss is a soft, sod-forming perennial grass. Its fine-textured leaf blades range from gray-green to blue-green, giving lawns and open landscapes a distinctive low, billowing texture when left unmowed. As a warm-season grass, it spreads by both rhizomes and stolons (surface runners), forming a dense, self-repairing turf over time.  It does well when combined with other short native grasses such as Blue Grama or Curly Mesquite

Buffalograss seeds and foliage provide food and nesting material for birds. It serves as the larval host plant for the Green Skipper butterfly (Hesperia viridis).

Buffalograss is is a drought-tolerant, low maintenance, native turf alternative to non-native Bermuda grass. It can be mowed but looks very attractive when not mowed. It thrives in well-drained clay loam, caliche, or limestone soils but does not perform well in sandy soil. It needs only modest rainfall to stay green and will go dormant (turning tan or straw-colored) during drought or winter cold, greening back up readily once moisture returns. It requires little to no fertilizer and tolerates both heat and cold extremes.

Buffalograss can be used as native turf grass, in a prairie or meadow landscape, matrix garden, or as ground cover.

DISTRIBUTION MAPS 

USDA MAP

BONAP MAP

Present in state

Present in county and native

Native to North America, but adventive & escaped in state

Not present in state

Present and rare, native in county

Previously present, now extinct

Questionable presence (cross-hatched, regardless of color)