Bouteloua dactyloides

Bouteloua dactyloides, the buffalograss, is a low-growing, sod-forming perennial warm-season grass of the Poaceae, native to the shortgrass and mixed-grass prairies of North America from southern Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan) through the U.S. Great Plains south into northern Mexico. The species spreads aggressively by stolons to form dense, fine-textured turf, with deeply penetrating wiry roots reaching 1-2 m into the soil. Flowering culms are upright and only 1-30 cm tall. Leaf blades are narrow, soft, somewhat curly, hairy on both surfaces, and characteristically gray-green. Buffalograss is unusual in being predominantly dioecious: male plants bear small flag-like one-sided spikes elevated above the turf, while female plants produce small bur-like clusters of spikelets held within the foliage. Settlers famously used the dense sod to construct sod houses.