How does the presence of Big Bluestem affect the plants around it?

Documenter: Carter, Editor: Andrei, and Visual Director: Korbyn

How does the presence of Big Bluestem affect the plants around it?

Background information: Big Blue Stem plants are on average, more than 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall. This means that they need a lot more water than the smaller plants around them in the prairie. The rhizomes (continuously growing, horizontal underground stems which put out shoots and roots) of the big bluestem are short and scaly, the color of the leaves varies from a light yellow-green to a dark red. Big Bluestem is a warm season grass that thrives in arid climates. Big Bluestem grass was spread across prairies throughout North America. The Big Bluestem plant has played a big role in erosion control on land that’s already been farmed. The plant also provides shelter and forage for the surrounding wildlife. Big Bluestem grass is a solid stemmed grass, which sets it apart from most grass species that have hollow stems.

Data Collection: First we started by going out into the prairie and we chose a random plot with a big bluestem in it, once we found that we started measuring the distances between the big bluestem and the nearest plant. Then we measured 10 big bluestem plants to compare to the other plants we measured. Next time we went out and measured 10 other plants in the prairie to compare the difference. Once we collected all our data, we found the average distances of the big bluestem and average distances of the other plants, leading us to infer how much water and nutrients the big bluestem takes.

Conclusions: Based on our current data, we can come to multiple conclusions, beginning with the inference that big bluestem uses more water and nutrients than the plants around it. We can make this educated guess because it’s a fact that larger plants need more water than smaller ones, and big bluestem is one of, if not the largest plants in our prairie.