How to Identify Big Bluestem Seedlings

Identifying seedlings in a first-year planting is hard. This post has multiple tools to help you identify Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) seedlings. The characteristics are listed below, but there is also a video and a take-to-the-field guide that you can download and print. Good luck with learning to identify this native warm season grass!

Key Characteristics of Big Bluestem Seedlings

• Has an upright growth pattern.
• Color characteristics: Blue-green leaves with purple (varies).
• Flattened tiller bases that you cannot roll between your fingers.
• Coarse white hairs on tillers and lower half/base of leaves.
• The emergent eaves come out rolled into a tube.
• Ragged, soft and membranous ligule at junction of sheath and leaf.
• The seed that the seedling emerged from should still be attached to the plant between the roots and the above ground base of the seedling.
  

Video on Big Bluestem Seedling Identification

In this video we take a look at the characteristics for identifying Big Bluestem seedlings and also go to the field to see how it looks in a new planting. In this video, this field was established with Panoramic/Plateau herbicide, which has greatly reduced the weed competition. However, with more diverse plantings, this herbicide is not an option, and identifying Big Bluestem seedlings becomes more difficult amid the abundance of weeds.

Take-to-the-Field Guide on Big Bluestem Seedling Identification

Download Big Bluestem Seedling Identification Guide

More Help With New Plantings

Other Seedling Identification Help

The following seedling identification guides are also available

• Wild Rye (Andropogon gerardii) seedling id
• Indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans) seedling id
• Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) seedling id

First Year Weed Control Guides

We have guides for various weed control techniques during the first year of a native planting such as mowing high, using selective herbicides, and grazing. The First-Year Weed Control Overview can help you know which options may be best for your planting.