"They're called turkey's foot because they stem out into three like a foot of a turkey," Helen Alexander, a professor of the KU department of Ecology, said Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007 at the Suzanne Ecke McColl Nature Reserve. The prairie grass is also known as big blue stem and is the primary prairie grass in the area, Alexander said. In the 1800's, the majority of eastern Kansas was covered by prairie and big blue stem grass. Fewer natural burns and agriculture have diminished the natural prairies. She said only 5 percent remain.