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About Squirreltail
Squirreltail (Elymus elymoides), also called bottlebrush squirreltail, is a native perennial bunchgrass with narrow leaves and wonderfully bristly seed heads. Its common names come from the way the mature seed spikes flare outward with long awns, looking like tiny bottlebrushes, squirrel tails, or little dryland fireworks.
This is a cool-season grass, meaning it grows actively in cooler parts of the year, especially spring and sometimes fall. It usually forms tidy clumps rather than dense mats, with seed heads rising above the foliage. As the season progresses, the seed heads shift from green or purplish tones to straw, beige, tan, or pale gold.
Squirreltail is especially useful in dry western landscapes because it is tough, drought-tolerant, and good at establishing on disturbed ground. It is often used for erosion control, restoration seedings, post-fire recovery, and low-water native plantings. In a coloring page, its magic is all in the lines: fine leaves, wiry stems, long awns, dryland texture, and motion in the wind.
Where Squirreltail Grows
Squirreltail is native across much of western and central North America. It grows in dry grasslands, sagebrush steppe, desert shrublands, pinyon-juniper woodlands, open pine forests, rocky slopes, alkaline flats, prairies, meadows, roadsides, and disturbed dry soils. It can also occur from low desert or foothill sites up into mountain and alpine habitats, depending on the region and variety.
This grass prefers full sun and well-drained soil, but it is impressively adaptable. It can grow in gravelly, sandy, rocky, saline, alkaline, shallow, or low-fertility soils. It is also drought tolerant and can be useful where other grasses struggle to establish.
In gardens and restoration projects, squirreltail works well in dry meadows, native grassland plantings, erosion-control slopes, fire-wise landscapes, rocky gardens, sagebrush-steppe plantings, and sunny low-water borders. It pairs naturally with sagebrush, rabbitbrush, buckwheats, penstemons, lupines, yarrow, blue grama, Idaho fescue, California poppies, and other dryland native plants.
Pollinators It Supports
Squirreltail is wind-pollinated, so it does not produce nectar-rich flowers for bees, butterflies, or hummingbirds. Its small grass flowers release pollen into the air, and the plant relies on wind rather than showy petals to reproduce. But native grasses still matter deeply in pollinator habitat because many butterflies and moths need grasses as caterpillar food.
Squirreltail is used as a larval host by some butterflies and moths, including the woodland skipper (Ochlodes sylvanoides). Other grass-associated butterflies that fit dry western meadow and grassland coloring scenes include the common ringlet (Coenonympha tullia), common wood-nymph (Cercyonis pegala), sandhill skipper (Polites sabuleti), and umber skipper (Poanes melane). These species help show why a pollinator garden needs grasses as well as flowers.
The clumps also provide cover for small insects, spiders, beetles, grasshoppers, and overwintering larvae. Birds and small mammals may use the seeds or shelter around the plants, and grazing wildlife may browse young green growth. For a coloring page, squirreltail pairs well with a woodland skipper resting on a seed head, a grass moth tucked along a blade, a common ringlet flying low through a dry meadow, or a small seed-eating bird among the tan stems.
Coloring Tips
Color young leaves medium green, blue-green, gray-green, or yellow-green. Since squirreltail grows in clumps, use many long narrow strokes rising from the base. Add darker green near the center of the clump and lighter green along the outer blades.
The seed heads are the star of the page. Early flower spikes can be green, purple-green, or silvery green. Mature seed heads can be straw, tan, beige, wheat, pale gold, or light brown. Use fine lines for the awns so they look bristly, airy, and slightly wild rather than thick or heavy.
For the background, place squirreltail in a dry grassland, sagebrush steppe, rocky slope, open pine woodland, desert plain, or post-fire restoration scene. Add gravel, dry soil, sagebrush, rabbitbrush, buckwheats, penstemons, or distant hills. To show wildlife value, include a woodland skipper, common ringlet, sandhill skipper, small grass moth, grasshopper, or seed-eating bird near the seed heads.