BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Schizachyrium tenerum | Slender Bluestem 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Slender bluestem is a native, warm-season, perennial bunchgrass [26].
Culms are slender, sometimes reclining, and 24 to 39 inches (60-100 cm)
long [21,26], the upper half sparingly branched [21].  Leaves are wiry
and 2 to 8 inches (5 to 20 cm) long [26].  The inflorescence is a single
slender raceme [21,26].  Spikelets are paired.  The lemma of the sessile
fertile spikelet is awned.  The fruit is a caryopsis [21].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Hemicryptophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Slender bluestem sprouts from perennating buds at the base of culms.  It
also reproduces by seed [5,21,26].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Slender bluestem occurs on prairies and in dry pine woods [21], second
growth pinelands, pine-hardwood sites, and sandhills [5].

Slender bluestem in south-central Louisiana occurs on deep,
medium-textured silty loam [8] and also on predominantly sandy loam on
an upland site at elevations of 130 to 295 feet (40-90 m) [6].  It
occurs on the West Gulf Coastal Plain in Louisiana on upland ridges of
well-drained to excessively drained sandy soil with frequent water
deficits and nutrient limitations; it occurs on hillside seepage bogs
with loamy sand, sandy loam, sandy peat, or shallow mucky peat soil with
poor nutrient availability; and it occurs on wetland longleaf pine
savanna of the outer Coastal Plain Terraces on imperfectly drained sand
based, somewhat calcareous soils [4].  It also occurs in pitcher plant
bogs in west-central Louisiana on fine, slow-draining loam with pH
4.5 to 5.1 at elevations of 197 to 276 feet (60-84 m) [2,29].

In Pearl River County in south-central Mississippi slender bluestem
occurs on fine sandy loam and loamy sand at elevations of 230 to 285
feet (70-87 m) [14,27,36].

Slender bluestem on the lower Coastal Plain in south-central Georgia
occurs in flatwood second-growth longleaf pine-slash pine (Pinus
elliottii) forest on coastal terrace made up of marine sand 8 to 10 feet
(2.4-3.0 m) thick.  Soil is low-fertility, loamy fine sand and sand to a
depth of 40 inches (100 cm).  Elevation is 290 feet (88 m) [19].

Slender bluestem in extreme northwestern Florida occurs on acidic,
nutient-poor quartz sands which are low in minerals and clay nutrients.
Organic content of soils is generally low.  There is a high degree of
leaching, and extreme fluctuations of the water table occur [1].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Facultative Seral Species

Slender bluestem is not as shade tolerant as many associated grasses,
particularly pinehill bluestem [26].

Slender bluestem decreases in abundance when it is covered by plant
litter, including its own accumulated growth [8].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Slender bluestem growth starts in early spring and continues into summer
[26].  It matures early, usually by mid-June [7].  Seedheads can form by
mid-July; seed shatter occurs soon after seed maturation.  In fall and
winter foliage tangles and mats.  Slender bluestem tends to grow in
colonies [26].

In the Florida panhandle slender bluestem blooms from July to October [5].

Related categories for Species: Schizachyrium tenerum | Slender Bluestem