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Bouteloua aristidoides; photograph (c) Bruce Hartman, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Bruce Hartman, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-15

Bouteloua aristidoides (Kunth) Griseb.

Needle grama

Poaceae · Vermont, Arizona +18

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Bouteloua aristidoides, photograph (c) Jo Roberts, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bouteloua aristidoides, photograph (c) Jo Roberts, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bouteloua aristidoides, photograph (c) Jose Luis Leon de la Luz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bouteloua aristidoides, photograph (c) Mark Pollock, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bouteloua aristidoides, photograph (c) Mark Pollock, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bouteloua aristidoides, photograph (c) Mark Pollock, some rights reserved (CC BY) 83 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-0.8°C
Record low -8.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
34°C
Jun and Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
301mm
3 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–52DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes December to January and July to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Bouteloua aristidoides, the needle grama, is an annual desert grass (Poaceae) found in California, Arizona, and western North America.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Bouteloua aristidoides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (201 mm of 263 mm) falls in December to January and July to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.3 °C against a yearly mean of 20.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to April and June to July.

Rain

263 mm in the median year at the habitat, 201 mm of it December to January and July to October. Wettest month August at 52 mm, driest month May at 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 127 mm to 655 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 301 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 263 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 52 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -0.8 °C, the absolute minimum -8.1 °C, 267 frost nights in 44 years, 6.1 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 0.7 °C to 15.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 33.8 °C in June (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 41 to 49% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +186 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Bouteloua aristidoides through the yearWarmest months June and July, mean daily high 34 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 5.4 °C; 263 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost33.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-8.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 22–52RH 41–49%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 702 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C19 / 13–2320 / 15–2523 / 19–2827 / 23–3130 / 27–3434 / 29–3934 / 28–4033 / 28–3931 / 26–3628 / 23–3123 / 18–2718 / 13–24
Night °C5 / 1–157 / 2–159 / 4–1613 / 8–1817 / 12–2021 / 15–2423 / 17–2723 / 17–2720 / 15–2515 / 10–2210 / 5–196 / 1–16
Rain mm22 / 13–3916 / 7–4212 / 3–408 / 1–185 / 0–206 / 1–7844 / 7–13152 / 13–13839 / 10–12823 / 8–5015 / 7–2721 / 10–39
DLI24 / 21–3030 / 27–3640 / 37–4348 / 46–4952 / 49–5352 / 44–5547 / 40–5143 / 40–4639 / 35–4133 / 31–3626 / 23–3222 / 19–28
RH %49 / 46–5748 / 44–5644 / 41–5441 / 37–5341 / 35–5541 / 34–5747 / 40–6149 / 42–6248 / 41–6347 / 41–6047 / 42–5849 / 46–58
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 702 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (903 records in those cells; 5 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1369:1590 (21.525, -100.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 702 distinct grid cells holding 903 of the 910 in-range records (5 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1369:1590 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 21.50_-100.625, lapse-corrected +186 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2136 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeVermont, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Aruba, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay · introduced: India, Maryland · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker33.179, -111.627 · in the densest population, 628 records (37% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1684 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 903 of them in the land cells it reads, of 910 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 966 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 157 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 774 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1684 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Bouteloua aristidoides, photograph 1did not loadBouteloua aristidoides, photograph 2did not loadBouteloua aristidoides, photograph 3did not loadBouteloua aristidoides, photograph 4did not loadBouteloua aristidoides, photograph 5did not loadBouteloua aristidoides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jo Roberts, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Jose Luis Leon de la Luz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Mark Pollock, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Pectis cylindrica Pectis cylindrica Sonoran chinchweed Photo: CC BY, Jared ShormaAmbrosia monogyra Ambrosia monogyra Cheeseweed Burrobrush Photo: CC BY, Bruce HartmanBoerhavia triquetra Boerhavia triquetra Creeping sticky-stem Photo: CC BY, Mark PollockFouquieria splendens Fouquieria splendens Vine-cactus Photo: CC BY, Justin WilliamsBouteloua barbata Bouteloua barbata Six-weeks grama Photo: CC BY, Bruce HartmanTrixis californica Trixis californica American threefold Photo: CC BY, Matt Berger

Other Bouteloua 7 in the reference

Bouteloua barbata Bouteloua barbata Six-weeks grama Photo: CC BY, Bruce HartmanBouteloua curtipendula Bouteloua curtipendula Side-oats grama Photo: CC BY, Sam KieschnickBouteloua dactyloides Bouteloua dactyloides Buffalograss Photo: CC0, author not statedBouteloua gracilis Bouteloua gracilis Blue grama Photo: CC BY, Elliott GordonBouteloua hirsuta Bouteloua hirsuta Hairy grama Photo: CC BY, Anders HastingsBouteloua pectinata Bouteloua pectinata Tall grama Photo: CC BY, saltyhikerBouteloua rigidiseta Bouteloua rigidiseta Texas grama Photo: CC BY, Sam Kieschnick

Names & registers

Also known as Aristida unilateralis; Atheropogon aristidioides; Atheropogon aristidoides; Atheropogon hirsutus; Bouteloua aristidoides var. aristidoides and 8 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Bouteloua arizonica: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

Under another author Bouteloua gracilis Vasey is an older name of this species, not Bouteloua gracilis, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
(Kunth) Griseb.
Native to
Vermont, Arizona, California +17
Wild records
1684 in range · 966 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 37 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (32 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 5 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 21.50_-100.625, lapse-corrected +186 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 131 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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