Bouteloua

{{Short description|Genus of grasses}} {{Italic title}} {{Automatic taxobox |name = Grama grass |image = Bouteloua curtipendula.jpg |image_caption = ''Bouteloua curtipendula'' |display_parents = 3 |parent_authority = Stapf |taxon = Bouteloua |authority = Lag. 1805 not Hornem. ex P. Beauv. 1812<ref name="GRIN">{{GRIN |accessdate=2018-07-13}}</ref><ref>{{Tropicos}}</ref> |type_species = ''Bouteloua racemosa'' |type_species_authority = Lag. |synonyms_ref = <ref name=POWO_328303-2>{{Cite POWO|title=''Bouteloua'' Lag..|id=328303-2|access-date=2024-11-22|mode=cs1}}</ref><ref name="GRIN"/> |synonyms = {{Species list|hidden=yes |Actinochloa|Willd. ex Roem. & Schult., nom. superfl. |Antichloa|Steud., name not validly published |Aristidium|(Endl.) Lindl. |Atheropogon|Muhl. ex Willd. |Botelua|Lag., orth. var. |Buchloe|Engelm. |Buchlomimus|Reeder, C.Reeder & Rzed. |Bulbilis|Raf. |Calanthera|Hook. |Casiostega|Galeotti |Cathestecum|J.Presl |Chondrosum|Desv. |Corethrum|Vahl |Cyclostachya|Reeder & C.Reeder |Erucaria|Cerv., nom. illeg. |Eutriana|Trin. |Fourniera|Scribn., nom. illeg. |Griffithsochloa|G.J.Pierce |Heterosteca|Desv. |Lasiostega|Benth., illegitimate homonym |Nestlera|Steud., illegitimate homonym |Opizia|J.Presl |Pentarrhaphis|Kunth |Polyodon|Kunth |Polyschistis|J.Presl |Pringleochloa|Scribn. |Soderstromia|C.V.Morton |Strombodurus|Steud., name not validly published |Triaena|Kunth |Triathera|Desv. }} }}

'''''Bouteloua''''' is a genus of plants in the grass family Poaceae.<ref>Lagasca y Segura, Mariano. 1805. Variedades de Ciencias, Literatura y Artes 2(4,21): 134</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://delta-intkey.com/grass/www/boutelou.htm |title=The grass genera of the world: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval; including synonyms, morphology, anatomy, physiology, phytochemistry, cytology, classification, pathogens, world and local distribution, and references |access-date=2009-08-19 |author=Watson L, Dallwitz MJ. |year=2008 |work=The Grass Genera of the World }}</ref> Members of the genus are commonly known as '''grama grass'''.<ref name="ITIS">{{ITIS |id=41491 |taxon=''Bouteloua'' |accessdate=2011-03-04}}</ref>

==Description== [[File:Bouteloua hirsuta (4087876904).jpg|thumb|The top of a flower spike of ''Bouteloua hirsuta'' ([hairy grama), showing the flattened rachis]] ''Bouteloua'' includes both annual and perennial grasses, which frequently form stolons.<ref name=":Gould51" /> Species have an inflorescence of 1 to 80 racemes or spikes positioned alternately on the culm (stem). The rachis (stem) of the spike is flattened. The spikelets are positioned along one side of the spike. Each spikelet contains one fertile floret, and usually one sterile floret.<ref>{{eFloras|2 |family=Poaceae |first1=Bi-xing |last1=Sun |first2=Sylvia M. |last2=Phillips}}</ref>

== Taxonomy == The genus was first described by Mariano Lagasca in 1805.<ref name=POWO_328303-2/> It was named for Claudio and Esteban Boutelou, 19th-century Spanish botanists.<ref>Peterson, P. M. & Y. Herrera-Arrieta. 2001. Bouteloua. In Catalogue of New World Grasses (Poaceae): II. Subfamily Chloridoideae. Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 41: 20–33</ref><ref>Gould, F. W. 1980. The genus ''Bouteloua'' (Poaceae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 66(3): 348–416</ref> David Griffiths produced a 1912 monograph on the genus.<ref name=":Gould51">{{Cite book|title=Grasses of Southwestern United States|last=Gould|first=Frank W.|work=University of Arizona Bulletin|publisher=University of Arizona|year=1951|location=Tucson|pages=139–140}}</ref>

===Species=== Species of ''Bouteloua'' include:<ref name=POWO_328303-2/><ref name="ITIS"/><ref name="GRINspecies">{{cite web |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/splist.pl?1622 |title=Species Records of ''Bouteloua'' |work=Germplasm Resources Information Network |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture |access-date=2011-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090508041431/http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/splist.pl?1622 |archive-date=2009-05-08 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{BONAP|ref |genus=Bouteloua}}</ref><ref>Gould, F. W. & R. Moran. 1981. The grasses of Baja California, Mexico. Memoir San Diego Society of Natural History 12: 1–140</ref> * ''Bouteloua alamosana'' Vasey – Mesoamerica * ''Bouteloua americana'' (L.) Scribn. – American grama – southern Mexico, Central America, West Indies, northern South America * ''Bouteloua annua'' Swallen – Baja California Sur, Sonora * ''Bouteloua arizonica'' (M.E.Jones) Cuellar & Columbus * ''Bouteloua aristidoides'' (Kunth) Griseb. – needle grama – United States (California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas); Mexico, South America, Aruba * ''Bouteloua barbata'' Lag. – six-weeks grama – United States, Mexico * ''Bouteloua bracteata'' (McVaugh) Columbus – Michoacán * ''Bouteloua breviseta'' Vasey – United States, Mexico * ''Bouteloua chasei'' Swallen * ''Bouteloua chondrosioides'' (Kunth) Benth. ex S.Watson – sprucetop grama – United States (AZ TX); Mesoamerica * ''Bouteloua curtipendula'' (Michx.) Torr. – sideoats grama – widespread in USA, Canada, Mexico * ''Bouteloua dactyloides'' (Nutt.) Columbus – buffalograss – USA, Canada, Mexico * ''Bouteloua dimorpha'' Columbus – Great Plains in USA, Canada, Mexico, Honduras, Cuba, Trinidad * ''Bouteloua distans'' Swallen – Mexico * ''Bouteloua disticha'' (Kunth) Benth. – from southern Mexico to Ecuador; also Cuba, Galápagos * ''Bouteloua diversispicula'' Columbus * ''Bouteloua elata'' Reeder & C.Reeder * ''Bouteloua eludens'' Griffiths – USA (Arizona, New Mexico), Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sonora) * ''Bouteloua erecta'' (Vasey & Hack.) Columbus * ''Bouteloua eriopoda'' (Torr.) Torr. – United States, Mexico * ''Bouteloua eriostachya'' (Swallen) Reeder * ''Bouteloua gracilis'' (Willd. ex Kunth) Lag. ex Griffiths – blue grama – Great Plains in USA, Canada, Mexico * ''Bouteloua griffithsii'' Columbus * ''Bouteloua herrera-arrietae'' P.M.Peterson & Romasch. * ''Bouteloua hirsuta'' Lag. – USA (Great Plains, Southwest), Mexico, Guatemala * ''Bouteloua johnstonii'' Swallen – Coahuila * ''Bouteloua juncea'' (Desv. ex Beauv.) A.S.Hitchc. – lamilla – Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico * ''Bouteloua karwinskyi'' (E.Fourn.) Griffiths * ''Bouteloua kayi'' Warnock * ''Bouteloua media'' (E.Fourn.) Gould & Kapadia – from central Mexico to Uruguay * ''Bouteloua megapotamica'' (Spreng.) Kuntze – Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia * ''Bouteloua mexicana'' (Scribn.) Columbus – Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras * ''Bouteloua multifida'' (Griffiths) Columbus – from Sonora to Oaxaca * ''Bouteloua nervata'' Swallen – Hidalgo, México State * ''Bouteloua parryi'' (E. Fourn.) Griffiths – Parry's Grama, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Northern Mexico * ''Bouteloua pectinata'' (''Bouteloua hirsuta'' var. ''pectinata'') – tall grama, eyebrow grass – Texas * ''Bouteloua pedicellata'' Swallen – Puebla, Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Tlaxcala, Nuevo León, Veracruz * ''Bouteloua polymorpha'' (E.Fourn.) Columbus – from Durango to Oaxaca * ''Bouteloua purpurea'' Gould & Kapadia – Guanajuato, D.F., San Luis Potosí, México State, Hidalgo, Querétaro * ''Bouteloua radicosa'' (E. Fourn.) Griffiths – purple grama – USA (Arizona, New Mexico), Mexico (Chihuahua, Michoacán, Coahuila, Morelos, Puebla, Durango, Zacatecas, Distrito Federal de México, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Tamaulipas) * ''Bouteloua ramosa'' Scribn. ex Vasey * ''Bouteloua reederorum'' Columbus – Durango, Puebla, Zacatecas, Oaxaca * ''Bouteloua reflexa'' Swallen – Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Nayarit * ''Bouteloua repens'' (Kunth) Scribn. & Merr. – slender grama – Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Mesoamerica, Colombia, Venezuela, West Indies * ''Bouteloua rigidiseta'' (Steud.) Hitchc. – Texas grama – New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mexico (Aguascalientes, Durango) * ''Bouteloua scabra'' (Kunth) Columbus – from Hidalgo to Honduras * ''Bouteloua scorpioides'' Lag. * ''Bouteloua simplex'' Lag. Much of southwestern and central United States, Central America, western South America * ''Bouteloua stolonifera'' Scribn. – San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes, Zacatecas * ''Bouteloua swallenii'' Columbus – from El Salvador to Venezuela * ''Bouteloua triaena'' (Trin. ex Spreng.) Scribn. – from Sinaloa to Guatemala * ''Bouteloua trifida'' Thunb. – Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Mexico * ''Bouteloua uniflora'' Vasey – Nealley grama, oneflower grama – Utah, Texas, Coahuila, Zacatecas, Nuevo León, Querétaro, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas * ''Bouteloua vaneedenii'' Pilg. – Cuba, Leeward Islands, Venezuela * ''Bouteloua varia'' (Swallen) Columbus * ''Bouteloua warnockii'' Gould & Kapadia – Warnock's grama – New Mexico, Texas, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas * ''Bouteloua williamsii'' Swallen – Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras

<gallery> File:Bouteloua barbata (4191996700).jpg|''Bouteloua barbata'' (six-weeks grama) File:Bouteloua curtipendula (3797569342).jpg|''Bouteloua curtipendula'' (sideoats grama) File:Bouteloua eriopoda HC-1950.png|''Bouteloua eriopoda'' (black grama) File:Bouteloua gracilis2.jpg|''Bouteloua gracilis'' (blue grama) File:Eutriana multiseta - Species graminum - Volume 3.jpg|''Bouteloua megapotamica''  File:Bouteloua trifida HC-1950.jpg|''Bouteloua trifida'' (red grama) </gallery>

== Distribution == ''Bouteloua'' is found only in the Americas, with most diversity centered in the southwestern United States.<ref name=":Gould51"/> It also occurs in the Ciénaga de Zapata Biosphere Reserve of Cuba.<ref>[https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1801/ Ciénaga de Zapata National Park], on ''whc.unesco.org''.</ref>

== Uses == Many species are important livestock forage, especially ''Bouteloua gracilis'' (blue grama).<ref name=":Gould51" />

==See also== *List of Poaceae genera

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{Wikispecies-inline|Bouteloua|''Bouteloua''}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070831065719/http://utc.usu.edu/keys/bouteloua/bouteloua.html Interactive Key to ''Bouteloua'' of North America] {{commons category|Bouteloua|position=left}}

Category:Bouteloua Category:Bunchgrasses of North America Category:Bunchgrasses of South America Category:Grasses of North America Category:Grasses of South America Category:Poaceae genera Category:Taxa named by Palisot de Beauvois Category:Taxa named by Mariano Lagasca