Tripsacum dactyloides

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Common Name: Eastern Gama Grass

Full to part sun; medium moisture level; adapted to a wide variety of soils including clay, loam, and sandy soil; moderately acid to slightly alkaline pH.  4-8 feet height, blooms spring to fall, purple and orange flowers, will naturalize by self-seeding and by thick creeping rhizomes.

Germination Code:  C(60)

Native Region:  Statewide but concentrated in southwest and southeast corners of the state

Warm-season, robust, clump-forming grass.  Primarily interesting for its terminal inflorescences which have separate male and female flowers (purple and orange).  Grows large and stately so needs plenty of room.  Primarily used as livestock forage.  This grass is a distant relative of corn, and deer love its seeds.

Eastern Gama Grass - Tripsacum dactyloides 2
Photo Courtesy of Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center http://www.wildflower.org/