Establishment of blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis [H.B.K.] Lag ex. Steud.) depends on adequate precipitation at critical times and on reduced competition from associated vegetation. These conditions rarely occur on Central Plains rangelands. Therefore, rapid vegetative spread of new seedlings is desirable for colonizing disturbed rangeland. Blue grama genotypes selected for rapid spread would also be desirable for rangeland seeding. For 6 years, we followed the rate of spread of 19 blue grama clones originating from seedlings which emerged in 1980 and grew under natural competition. We observed a 4.5-fold difference in basal area and a 16.3-fold difference in above-ground biomass of these clones, perhaps because of genetic differences among clones and varying levels of competition. Clones must be tested under uniform competition with clonal replication to obtain reliable estimates of their capacity to spread. The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020
Scholarly peer-reviewed articles published by the Society for Range Management. Access articles on a rolling-window basis from vol. 1, 1948 up to 5 years from the current year. Formerly Journal of Range Management (JRM). More recent content is available by subscription from SRM.