Plant · P-1162

Big Bluestem

Andropogon gerardii

Big Bluestem is the tallest of the four grasses that built the tallgrass prairie, growing up to ten feet on roots that reach ten feet down and turning a deep maroon-tan in autumn. Its seedhead splits into three finger-like spikes that give it the common nickname turkey foot. Livestock find it so palatable that it is usually the first grass grazed out of a pasture, so it needs a rest-and-rotation schedule or a hay cutting rather than continuous grazing to persist, and more than twenty species of songbirds nest and shelter in its standing winter growth.