KENEDY BIG BLUESTEM
Short Description:
Kenedy Big Bluestem is a native, warm season, perennial bunchgrass that grows 6-10′ in height. It is an excellent livestock forage and provides valuable wildlife cover. It is useful as a pasture and hay grass, wildlife cover, range restoration and erosion control. It is well adapted to use in sandy, sandy loam, and loam sand soils, but will tolerate well drained clays and clay loam soils. Kenedy Big Bluestem originates from 2 native populations collected from the Kenedy Sand Prairie of South Texas and developed for release by the Texas Native Seeds Program and the USDA NRCS South Texas Plant Materials Center. In extensive testing in the Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes, Rio Grande Plain, and South Texas Sand Sheet, it has outperformed other available commercial selections of Big Bluestem in terms of forage production and long-term survival. Please call to place an order (210) 661-4191. Our Texas Natives are certified “Selected Texas Native Germplasm” by the Texas Department of Agriculture. Each variety is of a specific ecotype of its species that was locally sourced from counties in Texas.
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Description
Kenedy Big bluestem is a native, warm season perennial bunchgrass that can reach 10’ in height. This selection is best adapted to loamy, sand, sandy loam, loamy sand soils in the South Texas Sand Sheet, Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes and southern portions of the Post Oak Savannah and Blackland Prairie. Big bluestem is a highly preferred livestock forage, although it is intolerant of continuous heavy grazing. It provides excellent wildlife cover. It is useful as a pasture and hay grass, for wildlife cover, for range and prairie restoration, and erosion control. It is adapted to use in well-drained soils such as sandy prairies, in Coastal Live Oak Mottes, and in Coastal Prairies.
Kenedy big bluestem was developed and released by the Texas Native Seeds Program and USDA NRCS South Texas Plant Materials Center from seed collected from remnant Tallgrass Prairies of the Kenedy Sand Prairie in the South Texas Sand Sheet. Typically slow to establish when planted from seed, it is best planted as part of a mix of other locally-adapted native species. Big bluestem is one of the “big 4” grasses of the Tallgrass Prairie Ecosystem of North America and was historically much more common in Texas than it is today.
Planting
Plant in early spring at a rate of 7 lbs. pure live seed (PLS) per acre at 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep.
Soil
Sand, Loamy Sand, and Sandy loam soils; also grows well on clay and clay loam soils.
Height
6 - 10 feet
Type
Warm Season Perennial
Region
Southern half of Texas