Index / Search / Schizachyrium tenerum

§1 Plant

Schizachyrium tenerum Nees

vernacular slender little bluestem — species · Poaceae

USDA: SCTE5
GBIF: 9231466 syn.
Rank: species

slender little bluestem (Schizachyrium tenerum) — Platephotograph · Eric KeithCC BY-NC source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Graminoid
Duration: Perennial
Group: Monocot
Family: Poaceae Barnhart
Genus: Schizachyrium

§2a

Native status, by region

L48 Lower 48 States Native
PR Puerto Rico Native

§2b

County-level range

· 66 counties across 5 states/territories

Legend Native · 66 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: Medium
Shade: High
Moisture use: Medium
Fire: High
Salinity: None
Anaerobic: Low
CaCO₃: Low
Hedging: None

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: 12 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 240 min.
Precipitation: 34–60 in/yr
pH range: 5.8–6.8
Root depth: 10 in min.
Fertility need: Medium
Soil texture: coarse, medium

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Bunch
Growth rate: Moderate
Lifespan: Short
Mature height: 3 ft
Foliage texture: Medium
Foliage colour: Dark Green
Porosity (summer): Moderate
Porosity (winter): Porous
Flower colour: Yellow
Fruit colour: Brown
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: None
Toxicity: None

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Late Spring
Seed abundance: Low
Seed begins: Summer
Seed ends: Fall
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: No
Seeds / lb: 200,000
Propagation: seed

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: No Known Source
Nursery stock: No
Browse palatability: Medium
Graze palatability: Medium
Palatable, human: No
Protein potential: Low
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 66 counties across 5 states/territories.

Alabama view state ↗ 5 N ▾

Florida view state ↗ 14 N ▾

Georgia view state ↗ 12 N ▾

Louisiana view state ↗ 19 N ▾

Mississippi view state ↗ 16 N ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/SCTE5 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/9231466 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T07:25:30Z