Four tall grasses live on the eponymous prairie preserve, they are:

1. 
   Big Bluestem.
   
2. 
   Little Bluestem.
   
3. 
   Switchgrass.
   
4. 
   Indiangrass.
   

Big Bluestem

'Big Bluestem is a warm-season, perennial tallgrass with short, scaly underground stems. Its roots saturate the top 2 feet of soil and can reach to depths of 12 feet. Growth begins in early April and seed stalks 3 to 8 feet tall appear from late August to October. The grass is sometimes called turkey foot bluestem because the seed head usually branches into three parts resembling a turkey's foot.'

Little Bluestem

'Little Bluestem is a warm-season, perennial midgrass with a dense root system that may reach 5 to 8 feet in depth. This bunch grass spreads by seed, tillers

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, and short, underground rootstocks. Growth begins in early April with seed stalks from 2 to 5 feet tall appearing from late August to October. Little Bluestem can be identified by its flat, bluish basal shoots and its leaf blades that tend to fold.'

Switchgrass

'Switchgrass is a perennial, warm-season tallgrass with vigorous roots. This grass reproduces from underground stems and seed. It can be identified by a small nest of hairs where the blade attaches to the sheath. Switchgrass has a rather large seed with a feathery seed head on stalks 3 to 6 feet tall.'

Indiangrass

'Indiangrass is a warm-season tallgrass that reproduces from seed and short, scaly underground stems. The beautiful golden, plume-like seed heads, 4 to 12 inches long, top stems that are from 4 to 8 feet tall. Indiangrass, like Big Bluestem, may form patches of sod

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and occur in bunches.'

Growing Grass

Height to which tallgrass grows depends on the amount of water rained upon it. Drought is part of the natural cycle. Most recent drought began in spring 2001 with the result that, after having trekked to Prairie Headquarters, the first question visitors ask after Where is the bathroom? is Where's the tallgrass we've heard so much about? In answer to this critical question docents explain about drought and its limiting effects on growth of plant life, then show the disappointed visitor the display of dried tallgrass in the nature exhibit of the Visitor's Center

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. In previous years it was possible to stop at one of the scenic turn-outs on the way to the headquarters and walk away into the grass to get a feel of the prairie.

On foot, surrounded by grass, only sound is from wind rattling the grasses, from insects stridulating, from birds calling. As an observer you are surrounded by a vast sweep of grass-covered open space under the pale blue vault of the sky. In proper frame of mind you can feel your soul expand to become imbued by the Spirit That Moves In All Things. In that silence away from the hurly-burly of our civilisation you can become reconnected with Nature in all its stunning variety. It is enough to make you weep in rapture with Life

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Acknowledgements

Facts and figures presented in this article are drawn from source material provided to docents of the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve by The Nature Conservancy for dissemination to the public.