The effects of soil texture and grazing by cattle on the production of seeds of Bouteloua gracilis were evaluated for a semiarid grassland in northeastern Colorado. Ten locations were chosen to represent the range in soil textures and grazing intensities found at the Central Plains Experimental Range research site. Number of flowering culms, inflorescences and seeds, length of each flowering culm, total biomass of reproductive structures (culms, inflorescences, and seeds), and basal area were assessed for 96 B. gracilis plants at each location. Community-level estimates of density of flowering culms and density of viable seeds were made for each location. Both soil texture and grazing by cattle were important to spatial variability [...]
