Jake

Blue Grama Grass-The Blue Grama Grass grows throughout Colorado.It has short curly leaves.It is native to Colorado,which means it has always grown in Colorado.It was adopted our state grass on May 20, 1987.It grows in very dry places.It grows about five inches tall.The grass can survive fire, a long drought, or severe cold. The grass is either blue or a grayish color The grass grows in a wide array of topographic positions.The Blue Grama Grass is on an endangered plant list in Illinois. Colorado isn't the only state that has the Blue Grama Grass for their state grass. New Mexico has the Blue Grama Grass as there state grass,also

during the summer time, the grass is usually green. Blue Grama demonstrates good drought, fair salinity, and moderate alkalinity tolerances. In its dormant state, it will also tolerate burning. Blue Grama will not tolerate dense shade, flooding, a high water table, or acid soils. This native grass is a densely tufted, perennial, warm-season, native short grass distributed throughout the Great Plains and Southwest. It is found on open plains and rocky slopes. It is best adapted to medium and fine textured, relatively deep soils of rolling uplands.Blue Grama is suitable for mixtures of grasses used in erosion control, low maintenance turf plantings, and surface mine vegetation. Establishment, as with all native grasses, proper ground preparation is one of the most important considerations. The seedbed should be firm but not solid; cultivation to kill the roots of cool-season grasses is essential. Planting may be done by either drilling or broadcasting, with the seed being sown no more than 1/4 inch. Blue Grama may be confused with buffalo grass, with which it grows, but Blue Grama lacks the creeping stolons of buffalo grass. In short grass sod, it frequently is the primary dominant. Reproduction of blue Grama is primarily by seed and short rhizomes. It spreads outward slowly from parent plants by tilering, frequently creating a sod appearance. Bad River ecotype does not differ significantly from the general taxonomic description of blue Grama. Its leaf blades are 1 to 6 inches long, light to medium green, curled, with prominent veins (above and below) and rolled at emergence. Most of the curly leaves are at the base of the plant. The inflorescence is a panicle with 1 to 3 supplicate primary branches. This is a very popular native grass used in both lawns and pastures.

Blue Grama grass is a warm season tufted perennial grass. It is native to the short and tall grass prairies, and makes up 75% to 90% of the grasses found there. The prairies lie in central North America. Cold Artic air currents blow in from the polar regions in the winter. Summers are hot and dry because the prairies lie in the middle of the continent, and don't get moisture from oceans. Blue Grama can grow up to 18 inches tall. It grows as a bunch grass, forming open sod mats. As it matures and is grazed on by animals, the bunches grow together and form the thick sod. Blue Grama is an important prairie grass because its dense, shallow root mass holds down the soil and keeps it from blowing away like it did during the Dust Bowl Era in the 1930s. Because the root system is shallow it can quickly absorb any rain that might fall. Blue Grama is 6 to 12 (15-30 cm) inches high. It has flat leaves that come to a point at the end. The leaves can grow from 1 to 10 inches (2.5-25 cm) long and 1/8 inch (3 mm) wide. The flower stems grow 7 to 18 inches (17-46 cm) tall. The flowers look like crescent moons perched on the end of the flower stem. A flower consists of 20 to 90 little spikelets. Blue grama flowers from June to August, depending on what part of the prairies its growin in, and how much moisture it gets. When plowed under, or otherwise disturbed, it can take blue grama grass as long as 50 years to re-establish itself. On the prairies blue grama begins to grow late in the season, mid-April, when the soil is about 52° F (11° C). Blue grama goes dormant in the winter, and when there is a drought.The Blue grama likes to grow in full sun with well-drained good soil, and can stand drought, heat, cold, and mowing. Although it doesn't like shade, it can grow in open piñon forests. People use it instead of regular grass where there are dry areas, for grazing animals, and to control erosion. Some people use the flowers in dried flower arrangements and the plant is also used in rock gardens.Blue Grama Grass

The Columbine- The Columbine is our state flower. It was adopted our state flower on April 4, 1899. It is native to Colorado which means it has always grown here. A man named Edwin James discovered the Columbine on Pikes Peak in 1820. It is a white and lavender-blue color. The Columbine grows wildly through Colorado. We have laws that protect our state flower, like it is against the law to pick one. One reason it was chosen our state flower was because the flower looks like little doves. The word for dove in Latin means columbae.
 * [[image:http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/IMAGES/Colorado/thumbnails/flower_CO_columbine.jpg width="76" height="76" caption="Colorado state flower" link="http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/Colorado/ColoradoColumbine.html"]] || The Columbine ||



Sea Creatures Lots of creatures live in the sea, but there are three creatures that have a unique way of surviving. To begin, a hermit crab is born without a shell. It must find a shell to live in, but the shell has to fit perfectly. If not, the shell may fall off, leaving the hermit crab unprotected. Next, from along time ago, an Ichthyosaur would eat almost anything they could find!!! Sometimes they ate their own siblings! Scientists think this could have been why they became extinct. Finally, an octopus will use it’s “suction cups’’ on their legs to stick to it’s prey in till it gave up. One bite from an octopus’s scary teeth can kill you. Clearly, some sea creatures have a fascinating way to survive.

By Jake