Big Bluestem is a warm season, perennial bunchgrass with blue-green stems 4-8 ft. tall. The seedhead is usually branched into three parts and resembles a turkey’s foot. Fall color is maroonish-tan.Big Bluestem is the star component of the “Big Four” native grass species that characterize the tallgrass prairies of central North America (the other three are Indiangrass [Sorghastrum nutans], Switchgrass [Panicum virgatum], and Little Bluestem [Schizachyrium scoparium]). It tends to be taller than the other species and was at one time very abundant. It can still get quite aggressive when it’s established in a favorable, undisturbed location, but overgrazing and land destruction have reduced it to mere patches of its former range. Part of the problem is that cattle love it so much – some ranchers refer to it as “ice cream for cows” – and it cannot take concentrated grazing; the seasonal grazing of migratory bison is what it’s evolved to cope with.