Bulb panicgrass, thus named from the hard, bulblike enlarge- 

 ments, or corms at the bases of the stems, is one of the common 

 perennial panicgrasses of the Southwest, occurring typically in 

 moist canyons and valleys and in cultivated fields from Arizona and 

 New Mexico to western Texas and Mexico. It is found chiefly in the 

 upper woodland and ponderosa pine belts and, while usually of 

 scattered occurrence, is at times locally abundant. 



On the Coronado National Forest in southern Arizona where this 

 species occurs extensively in pure stands, the grass ranks as good 

 forage, being grazed by cattle and horses from July to December. 

 Generally, it is considered fairly good to good forage for all classes 

 of livestock during the spring and early summer while the growth 

 is still young and tender. Toward fall, however, it becomes coarse 

 and tough, and is little grazed. In localities where bulb panicgrass 

 grows in dense stands it is sometimes cut for hay. The hay is of good 

 quality although bulky and light in weight. The species flourishes 

 and produces valuable hay crops even on alkaline soils. It is one of 

 the few hay plants which yield well on such soils. 



Bulb .panicgrass is, unfortunately, sometimes known as alkali 

 sacaton, and because of that fact is probably sometimes confused 

 with true alkali sacaton (Sporobolus airoides). Although bulb panic- 

 grass is commonly a taller, coarser grass than alkali sacaton and has 

 longer heads and wider leaves, size is not always the acceptable dis- 

 tinction between the two because the smaller specimens of bulb panic- 

 grass are not so large as the sizable forms of alkali sacaton. Bulb 

 panicgrass, however, is readily recognizable by the cormlike swell- 

 ings at the base of the hollow stems, and because the spikelets fall 

 from the stems intact. Alkali sacaton shows no swellings at the base 

 of its pithy stems, and the glumes of the spikelets are persistent, re- 

 maining after the seed falls. Moreover, in bulb panicgrass the 

 spikelets include a well developed sterile lemma, and hence are two- 

 flowered, whereas the spikelets of all Sporobolus species are 

 one-flowered. 



A variety of this species, little bulb panicgrass (P. bulbosum 

 minus, syn. P. bulbosum sciaphilum), occurs along river banks and 

 in ravines of mesas and similar situations in the Rocky Mountains 

 and Sierra Madre Mountains from New Mexico and Arizona to 

 central Mexico. It is a smaller plant than the species, commonly less 

 than 3 feet high, with smaller spikelets, narrower leaf blades, and 

 smaller corms at the base of the stems. The corms are usually not 

 over one-quarter of an inch in diameter and commonly many to- 

 gether attached at the base to a rootstock. Its palatability is about 

 the same as that of typical forms of the species. 



