United States Department of Agriculture
Natural Resources Conservation Service		 Texas Go to Accessibility Information
Skip to Page Content
 Antelope



 

 

 

Eastern Gamagrass

Scientific Name: Tripsacum dactyloides (L.) L.
Common Name:  Eastern Gamagrass

Morphological Characteristics:

Habit- native warm season perennial grass reaching 1.5-3 meters tall; grows from clumps with thick, knotty rhizomes; flowers April to November; reproduces by seed
Leaves- thin and flat, glabrous, 30-75 cm long and 10-25 mm broad; ligule a short or ciliate or lacerate membrane; sheaths round, smooth, and shiny
Inflorescence - a single spicate raceme 12-25 cm long; Spikelike racemous branches; Spikelets divided with male spikelets above and female spikelets below
Fruit -caryopsis

Habitat and Range: occasional to frequent in all regions of Texas, but most common in the eastern portion.

Conservation Use:

Why collect this plant? Texas Plant Materials Centers have identified this plant as having potential benefits to the following conservation practice standards: 512 Pasture & Hayland Planting; 550 Range
Planting; 393 Filter Strip; and 390 Riparian Herbaceous Cover. Your assistance in collecting this plant helps support the NRCS conservation practice standards which are employed daily to conserve the natural resources of Texas!

Centers Requesting Seed:

E. Kika de la Garza PMC

How to Collect Seed

  1. Identify native plant stands in your area. You can go to the following websites for helpful photos http://plants.usda.gov or http://www.noble.org/imagegallery/index.html or
    www.wildflower.org
  2. Determine if seed is mature. Mature seed is typically dry and will easily separate from the seed head.
  3. Hand strip mature seed by grasping the bottom of the seed head then gently pulling away from the base of the plant. Deposit seed in a brown paper sack. Collect seed from a
    minimum of 30 to 50 plants.
  4. Label each collection as it is made so collections do not get mixed up. Information required includes: Collector’s name, number of plants collected, location (parish, city, highway, GPS coordinates), site description (soil type, slope, plants growing in association).
  5. Complete NRCS-ECS-580; Plant Collection Information Form and mail with collected seeds to the NRCS Plant Materials Center requesting the species.

E. Kika de la Garza Plant Materials Center
3409 N FM 1355
Kingsville, TX 78363

Helpful Tips

Look for superior plants that display differences in color, height, or forage abundance and record observations. Differences in growing site or location should be made into separate collections if they are separated by more than 1 mile between sites.

Seeds are only produced by the lower, female flowers on the inflorescence. The female portion will turn yellow and begin to snap off in sections when mature.

Other Photos:

Eastern Gamagrass

This document requires Adobe Acrobat.

NRCS Species for 2008 Plant Collections - Eastern Gamagrass (PDF; 1.33 MB)