If one category of plants can be said to dominate the park ecosystem, it would have to be the grasses. And if one had to choose one grass species that most characterizes the site, little bluestem would be the obvious choice. A warm season grass, this native bunchgrass' real beauty comes out in the fall when it turns a luminous reddish-brown. In a land not known for its fall foliage this grass is a welcome sight.
Little bluestem isn't the only native grass to make an impression. The closely related sand bluestem towers over the other natives. Silver bluestem looks to have a luminescent seedhead if backlit by the sun.
Other common natives include indiangrass, switchgrass, and purpletop. These last two are sometimes mistaken for the very non-native and invasive johnsongrass. Johnsongrass has the look of dried corn stalks when it dries in the fall.
Forming wispy, almost hair-like seed heads are the threeawns, sand lovegrass, and witchgrass. More rigid seed heads can indicate western wheatgrass, the gramas, buffalograss, inland saltgrass, the wildryes, the dropseeds, or vine mesquite. Each grass species has evolved a different configuration for presenting its flowers and distributing its seeds which aids in differentiating these species for the casual observer.
Unfortunately, some of the more common grasses at the site are the bromes, the foxtails, and bermuda grass. So pervasive are they across the western landscape that they could almost be considered "naturalized". But that is as much as admitting defeat, something ecological restorationists aren't prepared to do easily!
