Buffalo Grass

Buchloe dactyloides (Nutt.) Engelm. Trans. Acad. St. Louis 1:432. 1859.
Sesleria dactyloides Nutt. Gen. 1: 65. 1818.
A«(/!e/i/<ora aa:jH(^o;-a Steud. Syn. Gram. 111. 1854. (Type from Texas, DrKmmo«d.)
Calanthera daclyloides Kunth; Hook. Jour. Bot. & Kew Misc. 8: 18. 1856. (Based on Sesleria
dactyloides Nutt.) Casiostcga dactyloides Fourn. Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg. IS: 470. 1877. (Based on Sesleria dactyloides
Nutt.) Bulbilis dactyloides Raf.; Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 753. 1891. (Based on Sesleria dactyloides Nutt.)
Plants forming dense sod, the staminate culms 5-20 cm. tall, the pistillate shorter, partly hidden among the leaves; sheaths overlapping, obscurely keeled, glabrous on the back, villous at the throat; ligule ciliate, 0.5 mm. long; blades flat, attenuate, curled, as much as 10 cm. long, 1-1.5 mm. wide, sparsely pilose, scabrous on the margins; staminate spikes 1 or 2, rarely 3 or 4, 0.5-1.5 cm. long, spreading, the spikelets 4 mm. long; pistillate spikes 2, enclosed in the two upper approximate, shortened and much broadened sheaths, 7 mm. long, 3-4 mm. thick, 4-5-flowered, some of the spikelets reduced to the thickened second glume; fertile lemma about 5 mm. long.
Type locality: Grassy plains of the Missouri (NuUalD.
Distribution: Dry plains, western Minnesota to central Montana, and southward to northern Mexico.