Buffelgrass

Description:

It is yellow-brown in color during the summer and green after the monsoon season in July and August. However, buffelgrass is immune to droughts and can survive long periods of time without water. It is a very tall grass that chokes out native grasses. During the summer months when buffelgrass is very dry, it burns very quickly. The fact that buffelgrass burns so rapidly makes it especially dangerous in wildfire season. Buffelgrass also spreads to different locations very easily because the seeds get blown across large areas during wind storms. The only effective way to get rid of buffel grass is to pull the grass by hand, making sure that the roots are removed with the grass. Poisons do not effectively get rid of the buffel grass.

Habitat:

Area along side of road in Tucson.

Notes:

Buffelgrass is a very drought-tolerant perennial, so it can remain dense and even spread in dry years. It is present to burn year round and supports hotter fires. The Sonoran Desert evolved without fire as an ecological factor and most of its plants cannot tolerate it. A single buffelgrass fire kills nearly all native plants in its path. The buffelgrass invasion is now destroying steep hillsides, and is rapidly converting formerly rich biological communities into monocultural wastelands.