bluestem

[ bloo-stem ]

noun

1. any of several prairie grasses of the genus Andropogon, having bluish leaf sheaths, now grown in the western U.S. for forage.
2. dwarf palmetto.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bluestem¹

An Americanism dating back to 1850–55; blue + stem ¹

Example Sentences

North Creek introduced Standing Ovation, a little bluestem that stands tall — 3 to 4 feet — through all four seasons.

From Washington Post

A field of bluestem unfurled to the south.

From Washington Post

“I see the backlit gray-green leaves of little bluestem on hot summer afternoons, and the backlit coppery leaves of those same grasses through the winter,” he writes.

From Washington Post

The land that hasn’t been cleared and converted to Bermuda grass for cattle grazing is covered in dense forest, or native grasses like little bluestem.

From Washington Post

In the two-acre meadow in Delaware, plants are set amid a sea of prairie dropseed grass; in another bed, the matrix is of a low grass named little bluestem.

From Washington Post