Colorado wildrye facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Colorado wildrye
Conservation status
Apparently Secure (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Subfamily:	Pooideae
Genus:	Leymus
Species:	L. ambiguus
Binomial name
Leymus ambiguus (Vasey & Scribn.) D.R.Dewey
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Leymus ambiguus is a type of grass often called Colorado wildrye or Rocky Mountain wildrye. This grass grows naturally in the Rocky Mountains of the United States. You can mostly find it on rocky hillsides. It thrives on the eastern slopes of the mountains in Colorado and New Mexico. It has also been seen in Utah. This plant is very important for the dry grasslands of the Colorado Front Range. It is a strong plant that helps keep the ecosystem healthy.

Discovering Colorado Wildrye

Colorado wildrye is a special grass that calls the Rocky Mountains home. It prefers to grow in places with lots of rocks. You will find it mainly on the eastern side of the mountains. This includes parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and sometimes Utah.

What Does It Look Like?

This grass is a perennial, meaning it lives for more than two years. It grows in loose bunches of stems. These stems can reach heights of about 60 to 110 centimeters (2 to 3.5 feet). Each stem is quite thin, about 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) thick.

Sometimes, this grass has special underground stems called rhizomes. These rhizomes help the plant spread and grow new shoots. Most of the leaves on the plant grow close to the ground, around the bottom of the stems.

Flowers and Seeds

The flowers of the Colorado wildrye grow in a cluster called an inflorescence. This flower cluster can be up to 17 centimeters (about 6.7 inches) long. It has small groups of flowers, called spikelets. These spikelets appear alone or in pairs. Each spikelet can hold between 7 to 10 tiny flowers.

This grass is good at making seeds. One plant can produce around 390 seeds. These seeds are very good at sprouting. Once they sprout, the young plants, called seedlings, grow quickly. This helps the grass spread and thrive in its mountain home.