Relatively few range scientists and ranchmen are aware of the sequence of events and changes in name usage that have preceded present name designations for many familiar plants. Sideoats grama, the accepted “common name” for the widespread and valuable range forage grass, Bouteloua curtipendula, is a good example. Sideoats grama was first known as Chloris curtipendula, a name proposed by Michaux in 1803 on the basis of a collection from southern Illinois. Two years later, 1805, M. Lagasca, a Spanish botanist, described the genus Bouteloua, named in honor of two Spanish gardeners, the Boutelou brothers. Lagasca listed five species in his new genus, including B. racemosa, the sideoats grama taxon. Between 1806 and 1886 the names Dinebra cur tipendula, Eu triana curtipendula, Cynodon curtipendula, A ndro pogon curtipendula, A theropogon curtipendulus, A theropogon apludoides, Bouteloua melicaeformis, Melica curtipendula, Cynosurus secundus, Dinebra secunda, Aristida secunda, Bouteloua curtipendula, Eu triana affinis, Atheropogon affinis and He terostega curtipendula, were proposed by different authors for this same grass.