A very hardy plant, little bluestem grows in a bunch in dry soil. Its roots reach 8 feet down, looking for water.
December 30 was a good day for thermometers. It was also a good day for hiking. How often does the temperature reach 65 degrees in Kansas during the final days of December? It did this year, leaving my wife and I with just one thing to do. We went to Konza Prairie for a walk. It was a perfect way to say so long to 2010.
I also went to look for some quick pictures of little bluestem. More later on little blue. We found a whole lot more.
The good news was the temperature was way up for the end of December. The warm temps brought out plenty of hikers, even some wearing shorts and t-shirts. It was also good news to have a breeze from the south. That kept the temperature up. The bad news, there was plenty of breeze to go around. At times it was downright windy.
Wind is always a part of prairie life. Sometimes it can be brutal. See here for example. The wind this day was not at all brutal, nor even unpleasant. It was just one of those days that make you hang on to your hat. So I put together some short clips to give you an idea. Grass is an amazing plant, rigid enough to stay upright and giving enough to bend to the ground. There is a great formula for durability in that description. It’s not a bad idea to think of grass when you face some of life’s hardships. Stay just strong enough to stand up to anything and know when to give.
Here’s the video, just to give you an idea.
Some of that grass blowing in the wind was little bluestem. That was part of the reason for the hike in the first place. I wanted to get a couple of quick shots of some bunches of little blue. It actually does grow in bunches. Clumps, really. Sometimes it is called bunch grass. While it isn’t as tall as its cousin, big bluestem, it is a very significant plant on the prairie. It’s the only native prairie grass that is found in every county in Kansas. That is one of the reasons it was selected this year as the official state grass of Kansas.
In the fall, little bluestem turns a rusty red.
That fact got me to thinking recently. Dangerous, I know. But I remember someone once commenting on their desire to visit a famous landmark on the other side of the world. They said they wanted to know it existed, not just take it by faith that it did. I am feeling the same way about little bluestem’s ubiquity in Kansas. I would like some day to visit every county in the state and collect a sample of little bluestem. Its hardiness is part of what makes it grow from the high plains of western Wallace County to the urban jungle of Johnson County in the east. It is part of the tallgrass prairie, but also survives well enough in dry conditions to grow out west, where rain is infrequent.
Part of the reason for its hardy nature is a root system that stretches downward as much as eight feet. Impressive for a plant that barely reaches three feet above ground. With roots that go down so deep and stems that grow lower to the ground than many native grasses means little bluestem can get by on less water than lots of plants in the tallgrass prairie.
In the flint hills, it is found upland, on the slopes of the hills, were water is scarce. When the soil is dry, other tallgrass plants get thirsty and do not thrive. That makes way for little bluestem to fill in the gaps. The stems do have a faint bluish hue in the summer, but turn rusty red in the fall. Thus, little bluestem stands out on the hills late in the year. Indian grass stays a bright golden yellow through winter, but red bunches of little bluestem can been seen from far away.
So I think I would like to visit all of Kansas and see how little bluestem does it. Along the way, I believe I could discover a lot more about each region and the people who care for the prairie, whether tallgrass, shortgrass, or mixed. I even think there is a book to be written about the discovery and I would love to write it. I am sure I can find little bluestem in every county, if only I look. Now if only I could find a way to earn a living while doing it.
