Sandberg bluegrass, also called little bluegrass, is a perennial and 

 strictly a bimchgrass, growing variously in small tufts of but one 

 or two stalks (culms) or in compact tussocks nearly a foot across. 

 It is a widely distributed and important species in most of the 

 western range country, except in the Southwest, where it occurs but 

 sparsely and only in the northern part. It ranks among the six most 

 important range grasses in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. 



Sandberg bluegrass grows throughout an unusually wide alti- 

 tudinal range, being found at elevations as low as 1,000 feet in 

 Washington and as high as 12,000 feet in the mountains of northern 

 New Mexico. It grows in semidesert areas, in foothills, on grassy 

 slopes and ridge tops, and in open timber and well-drained parks. 

 In addition to other grasses, such weeds as yarrow and pentstemon, 

 and such browse as sagebrush and rabbitbrush, are its frequent asso- 

 ciates. Although Sandberg bluegrass will grow luxuriously in rich 

 clay loam, it usually inhabits inferior shallow soils; it is often the 

 most common and characteristic grass on scablands and on dry, 

 rocky, or sandy soils. 



It is one of the most drought-resistant of the bluegrasses and, on 

 large areas of western semidesert hill range of the public domain, 

 overgrazing has killed out most of the bunchgrasses except Sand- 

 berg bluegrass. This is due to the fact that its deeply penetrating 

 masses of coarse, fibrous roots enable it to withstand trampling 

 unusually well; also it has the ability to make its growth, produce 

 its flowers, and mature its seeds early in the season while moisture 

 is still available. Moreover, its season-long palatability is slightly 

 less than that of some of the choicer grasses with which it grows. 



Sandberg bluegrass is one of the first plants ready to graze in the 

 spring, and the entire plant is very palatable and readily grazed by 

 all classes of livestock in the spring and early summer. When ma- 

 ture its palatability is somewhat lowered, but cattle and horses con- 

 tinue to graze it to some extent throughout the summer. In the fall, 

 when air-cured, the leaf blades are again eagerly grazed by all 

 classes of livestock. 



The leaves of Sandberg bluegrass are narrow, numerous, and 

 mostly in a curly basal tuft. The stalks (culms) are rather delicate 

 and, except for one or two short leaves, are naked. The flower heads 

 (panicles, or inflorescence) are narrow and compact, not exceeding 

 an inch in width even while blossoming. Unlike its relative, Ken- 

 tucky bluegrass, it has no hair along the veins (nerves) of its 

 flowers (florets), nor a tuft of cobwebby hairs at the base of the 

 lower floret bracts (lemmas) . It does, however, have fine crisp hairs 

 on the lower part of the lemma backs. Sandberg bluegrass does not 

 have underground stems (rhizomes, or rootstocks) and, except for 

 the vegetative increase in the size of the tufts, it must rely solely on 

 seed for reproduction. A fair seed crop, unfortunately of low via- 

 bility, is produced in the high mountains and, even at the lower ele- 

 vations, seed viability of the species is only fair. Sandberg blue- 

 grass much resembles, and is often mistaken for, the closely related 

 pine bluegrass (P. scabrella) , though it is somewhat smaller, softer, 

 and smoother than pine bluegrass. 



