I don't remember picking up any during a couple of firefights, but they appeared magically in James' inventory.
This would be cool if true, because I can spot some grenades, and without risking loss of cover I can direct James to get there and he'll then pick them up himself.
Best Answer
Grenades are a competence of some of your squad mates (and also Shepard's), not an item they can have in their inventory. Those competences are fully loaded when you start a mission.
You can recharge Shepard's grenade powers by picking up grenades yourself, but squad mates can't pick them up by themselves.
See http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Grenades and http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Frag_Grenade