Grass or grass-like · Poaceae
Sideoats grama
Bouteloua curtipendula · includes its varieties and subspecies
Sideoats grama is recorded as native to 38 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 920 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Key facts · USDA PLANTS
Sideoats grama at a glance
- Native in
- 920 counties, across 38 states and territories
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 3a PLANTS minimum temperature −43°F
- Mature height
- 3 ft PLANTS mature height
- Light and water
- Full sun (shade-intolerant) Medium water use
Estimated cold hardiness: zone 3a. PLANTS gives a minimum temperature of −43°F; zone 3a winters bottom out at −40°F, the coldest half-zone that stays within that limit.
Sideoats grama is recorded as native to 38 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 920 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Counties where it is native
The 15 counties with the most ZIP codes among the 920 where it is listed.
Native counties by state
- Alabama 5 counties
- Arizona 15 counties
- Arkansas 17 counties
- California 3 counties
- Colorado 26 counties
- Connecticut statewide record
- District of Columbia 1 county
- Florida 1 county
- Georgia 1 county
- Illinois 53 counties
- Indiana 15 counties
- Iowa 45 counties
- Kansas 105 counties
- Kentucky 13 counties
- Louisiana 5 counties
- Maryland 4 counties
- Michigan 6 counties
- Minnesota 55 counties
- Mississippi 1 county
- Missouri 61 counties
- Montana 9 counties
- Nebraska 62 counties
- New Jersey 6 counties
- New Mexico 33 counties
- New York 12 counties
- North Carolina 1 county
- North Dakota 26 counties
- Ohio 12 counties
- Oklahoma 38 counties
- Pennsylvania 16 counties
- South Dakota 34 counties
- Tennessee 12 counties
- Texas 159 counties
- Utah 9 counties
- Virginia 14 counties
- West Virginia 5 counties
- Wisconsin 34 counties
- Wyoming 6 counties
Growing traits
Values from the PLANTS characteristics record. “Not recorded” means PLANTS has no value; nothing here is estimated except the zone.
Growth
- Growth habit
- Graminoid
- Duration
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 3 ft
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Growth form
- Rhizomatous
- Shape
- Erect
- Lifespan
- Moderate
- Active growth period
- Summer
Light and water
- Shade tolerance
- Intolerant (full sun (shade-intolerant))
- Moisture use
- Medium water use
- Drought tolerance
- Medium
- Tolerance of waterlogged soil
- None
- Precipitation range
- 6 to 25 in per year
Soil
- Soil textures
- Coarse, medium and fine
- pH range
- 5.5 to 8.5
- Lime (CaCO₃) tolerance
- Medium
- Salinity tolerance
- Low
- Fertility requirement
- Medium
- Minimum root depth
- 12 in
Climate
- Minimum temperature
- −43°F
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 3a and warmer
- Minimum frost-free days
- 90
- Fire tolerance
- Low
Flowers, leaves and fruit
- Flower color
- Yellow
- Showy flowers
- No
- Bloom period
- Mid Spring
- Foliage color
- Green
- Showy in fall
- No
- Keeps leaves
- No
- Fruit color
- Brown
Other
- Toxicity
- None
- Nitrogen fixation
- None
- Nursery availability
- Routinely Available
- Family
- Poaceae
- PLANTS symbol
- BOCU
Source & data date
- Source
- USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).
- Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.
- USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
- Citation
- USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.
- Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
- Data date
- Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
- Scope
- Bouteloua curtipendula (PLANTS symbol BOCU), including 1 variety or subspecies folded into the species.
- Method
- A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources