Bouteloua is a genus of plants in the grass family.[4][5] Members of the genus are commonly known as grama grass.[6]
Taxonomy and systematics
The genus was named for Claudio and Esteban Boutelou, 19th-century Spanish botanists.[7][8]David Griffiths produced a 1912 monograph on the genus.[9]
Description
The top of a hairy grama (Bouteloua hirsuta) flower spike, showing the flattened rachis
Bouteloua includes both annual and perennial grasses, which frequently form stolons.[9] 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.[10]
Distribution
Bouteloua is found only the Americas, with most diversity centered in the southwestern United States.[9]It also occurs in the Ciénaga de Zapata Biosphere Reserve of Cuba.[11]
Uses
Many species are important livestock forage, especially blue grama.[9]
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)
^Lagasca y Segura, Mariano. 1805. Variedades de Ciencias, Literatura y Artes 2(4,21): 134
^Watson L, Dallwitz MJ. (2008). "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". The Grass Genera of the World. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
^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
^Gould, F. W. 1980. The genus Bouteloua (Poaceae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 66(3): 348–416
^ a b c dGould, Frank W. (1951). Grasses of Southwestern United States. Tucson: University of Arizona. pp. 139–140. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
^Ciénaga de Zapata National Park, on whc.unesco.org.
^"Species Records of Bouteloua". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. Archived from the original on 2009-05-08. Retrieved 2011-03-04.
^"Bouteloua". County-level distribution maps from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014.
^Gould, F. W. & R. Moran. 1981. The grasses of Baja California, Mexico. Memoir San Diego Society of Natural History 12: 1–140