DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Andropogon gerardii var. gerardii | Big Bluestem 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Big bluestem is widespread, occupying all but a few western states, but
it is most conspicuous in the tallgrass and mixed-grass prairie regions.
It is distributed across southern Canada from Quebec to Saskatchewan,
south through Montana and Wyoming to Arizona and northern Mexico, and
eastward to Florida and Maine [44,50,131,133].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES15  Oak - hickory
   FRES17  Elm - ash - cottonwood
   FRES19  Aspen - birch
   FRES21  Ponderosa pine
   FRES32  Texas savanna
   FRES38  Plains grasslands
   FRES39  Prairie


STATES : 
     AL  AZ  AR  CO  CT  DE  FL  GA  HI  IL
     IN  IA  KS  KY  LA  ME  MD  MA  MN  MS
     MO  MT  NE  NH  NJ  NM  NY  NC  ND  OH
     OK  PA  RI  SC  SD  TN  TX  UT  VT  VA
     WV  WI  WY  MB  ON  PQ  SK  MEXICO


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     BADL  BIBE  BITH  BICA  CAHA  CARE
     CACA  CHCH  CUVA  DEWA  DETO  EFMO
     GWCA  GWMP  GRCA  GRSM  GUMO  HOSP
     INDU  LAME  MACA  MORU  NATR  NERI
     OBRI  OZAR  PAIS  PIPE  RICH  ROMO
     SHEN  SLBE  THRO  WICA


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    7  Lower Basin and Range
    9  Middle Rocky Mountains
   10  Wyoming Basin
   11  Southern Rocky Mountains
   12  Colorado Plateau
   13  Rocky Mountain Piedmont
   14  Great Plains
   15  Black Hills Uplift
   16  Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K011  Western ponderosa forest
   K012  Douglas-fir forest
   K016  Eastern ponderosa forest
   K017  Black Hills pine forest
   K018  Pine - Douglas-fir forest
   K023  Juniper - pinyon forest
   K037  Mountain-mahogany - oak scrub
   K038  Great Basin sagebrush
   K056  Wheatgrass - needlegrass shrubsteppe
   K064  Grama - needlegrass - wheatgrass
   K065  Grama - buffalograss
   K066  Wheatgrass - needlegrass
   K067  Wheatgrass - bluestem - needlegrass
   K069  Bluestem - grama prairie
   K070  Sandsage - bluestem prairie
   K074  Bluestem prairie
   K075  Nebraska Sandhills prairie
   K076  Blackland prairie
   K079  Palmetto prairie
   K081  Oak savanna
   K082  Mosaic of K074 & K100
   K083  Cedar glades
   K084  Cross Timbers
   K086  Juniper - oak savanna
   K087  Mesquite - oak savanna
   K098  Northern floodplain forest


SAF COVER TYPES : 
     1  Jack pine
    14  Northern pin oak
    16  Aspen
    63  Cottonwood
    72  Southern scrub oak
   237  Interior ponderosa pine
   241  Western live oak


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Big bluestem is characteristic of climax grasslands throughout the
tallgrass prairie region; farther west in the mixed-grass prairie region
it is a climax grass in well-watered lowlands.  It once blanketed the
tallgrass prairie, often comprising 70 to 90 percent of the vegetation
[108].

Published classification schemes listing big bluestem as a climax
indicator species or as a dominant part of the vegetation are presented
below:

Area          Classification                    Authority
----        ---------------------         ---------------------
KS          Grasslands                    Albertson 1937
MN          Tallgrass Prairie             Smeins and Olsen 1970
ND          Prairie Vegetation            Dix and Smeins 1967
            Tallgrass Vegtetation         Meyer 1985
            Grasslands                    Whitman and Wali 1975
NM          Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands      Kennedy 1983
TX          Prairie                       Collins and others 1975

Related categories for Species: Andropogon gerardii var. gerardii | Big Bluestem