526 MISC. PUBLICATION 200, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



Figure 1109— Distribution of 

 Buchloe dactyloides. 



green summit, the middle lobe much the larger; palea broad, obtuse, 

 about as long as the body of the lemma, enveloping the caryopsis. 

 A low stoloniferous perennial with short curly blades, the staminate 

 flowers in 2 or 3 short spikes on slender, erect culms, the pistillate 

 in sessile heads partly hidden among the leaves. Type species, 

 Buchloe dactyloides. Name contracted from 

 Greek boubalos, buffalo, and chloe, grass, a 

 Greek rendering of the common name, "buffalo 

 grass." 



1. Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt.) Engelm. 

 Buffalo grass. (Fig. 1108.) Gray -green, 

 forming a dense sod, the curly blades forming 

 a covering 5 to 10 cm thick; blades rather 

 sparsely pilose, 1 to 2 mm wide; staminate 

 culms slender, 5 to 20 cm tall, the spikes 5 to 15 mm long; pistillate 

 heads 3 to 4 mm thick. % — Dry plains, western Minnesota to 

 central Montana, south to northwestern Iowa, Texas, western Louis- 

 iana, Arizona, and northern Mexico (fig. 1109). Buffalo grass forms, 

 when unmixed with other species, a close soft grayish-green turf. 

 It is dominant over large areas on 

 the uplands of the Great Plains, 

 colloquially known as the "short- 

 grass country", and is one of the 

 most important grazing grasses 

 of this region. The foliage cures on 

 the ground and furnishes nutri- 

 tious feed during the winter. The 

 sod houses of the early settlers 

 were made mostly from the sod 

 of this grass. 



Tribe 8. PHALARIDEAE 



108. HIEROCHLOE R. Br. 



(Savastana Schrank; Torresia Ruiz and 

 Pav.) 



Spikelets with one terminal per- 

 fect floret and two staminate 

 florets, disarticulating above the 

 glumes, the staminate florets 

 falling attached to the fertile one; 

 glumes equal, 3-nerved, broad, thin 

 and papery, smooth, acute ; stami- 

 nate lemmas about as long as the glumes, boat-shaped, hispidulous, 

 hairy along the margin; fertile lemma somewhat indurate, about as 

 long as the others, smooth or nearly so, awnless; palea 3-nerved, 

 rounded on the back. Perennial, erect, slender, sweet-smelling 

 grasses, with small panicles of broad, bronze-colored spikelets. Type 

 species, Hierochloeantarctica (Labill.) R. Br. Name from Greek hieros, 

 sacred, and chloe, grass, holy grass; H. odorata was used in parts of 

 Europe for "strewing before the doors of churches on festival days." 



Figure 1110.— Hierochloe alpina. Plant, X 1; 

 spikelet and floret, X 5. (Hitchcock 16058, 

 N. H.) 



