GrassDrought tolerantNative

Blue Grama

Bouteloua gracilis

A fine-textured native prairie grass with charming seed heads held above the leaves from midsummer into fall. It's one of the most drought-tolerant native grasses, at home in poor, dry soil, and it can be mowed as a low-water lawn where it's only lightly walked on. Give it full sun and good drainage.

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Blue Grama: whole plant — Photo: Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Mature size: 1 × 1.5 ft; 0.4 × 0.5 m, tall × wide
Hardiness: Zones 3a–10b; USDA
Sun: Full sun
Water: Dry
Blooms: Jul–Sep

Blue Grama at its mature size

A mature Blue Grama grows to about 1 ft tall and 1.5 ft wide.

Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.

Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Photos

Blue Grama: whole plant — Whole plant · Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Blue Grama: flowers — Flowers · Agnieszka Kwiecień, Nova, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Blue Grama: whole plant — Whole plant · Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Blue Grama: flowers — Flowers · Matt Lavin from Bozeman, Montana, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Growing Blue Grama

Grows well in: The Plains and Mountain West and the desert Southwest.
Good for: Drought tolerant
Leaves: Dies back in winter
Native to: Great Plains and Southwestern United States

Spacing

VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Blue Grama, that’s about 1.5 ft apart, center to center.

Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.