Big Bluestem
Andropogon gerardi
No openly-licensed photograph of this species is in the catalogue yet. We show a photo only when we can credit the photographer.
Growing it
| When | Flowers August to September; fruits September to October |
|---|---|
| Type | grass |
| Sun | Full sun |
| Water | Low |
| Soil | pH 5.5–7.5 |
| Hardiness | zone 3–9 |
| Mature height | 1.8 m |
| Mature spread | 0.9 m |
| Spacing | 0.6 m |
| Years to maturity | 3 |
| Bloom | Aug–Sep |
| Flower colour | Straw / green (grasses & sedges) wind-pollinated, so no showy flower |
| In bloom | August September |
| Fruit | Sep–Oct |
| Native to | SK |
narrow linear leaves about 40 cm long
Which ecoregions the records fall in
- Mixed Grassland south AB / SK: from the catalogue's regional tag, not from occurrence records
- Prairies : from the catalogue's regional tag, not from occurrence records
These are counts of records collected somewhere in the region, which is the resolution of the evidence: the map above shows where inside it. A region with 3 records is not the same claim as one with three hundred, so the count travels with the region. A region missing from this list means nobody has recorded it there, which is not the same as the plant being absent. Records within 900 m of a border count for neither side, because the border is not drawn finely enough to say which one they are on. Boundaries digitised from the National Ecological Framework for Canada v2.2 (Ecological Stratification Working Group 1995), simplified to about 900 m for display: an outline is accurate to roughly a kilometre, not to the metre. How these counts are made.
See every observation, live and current, on GBIF or iNaturalist.
Documented animals
1 documented relationships.
caterpillar host for
- Melanoplus infantilis Specimen records from mycoportal.org
Also worth knowing
Safety
Toxicity not assessed, absence of a warning is not a guarantee of safety
Buying it
About $8–$16 per plant (estimate), usually sold as seed or plugs. Estimate (grass default); AB retail as of 2026