Agricultural Sciences Variation of soil and plant characteristics among old world bluestem species

Old world bluestems (Bothriochloa spp.) have been successfully introduced as grasses for livestock forage in the semiarid Texas High Plains. Questions remain, however, on effects of these grasses on soil resources. We tested the hypothesis that differences in grass species produce differences in soil properties important to crop growth and useful in selecting the op-timum species for the Southern High Plains of Texas. Three old world bluestem (Bothriochloa) species [C.E. Hubbard ‘Caucasian’, B. cau-casica (Trin.); ‘WW Spar’, B. ischaemum (L.