eastern gamagrass
Tripsacum dactyloides
Eastern gamagrass is a close wild relative of domesticated corn and shares a common ancestor with the genus Zea.
- Scientific name
- Tripsacum dactyloides
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Liliopsida › Poales › Poaceae › Tripsacum
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- decreasing
- Biome
- grassland
- Habitat
- Tallgrass prairies, moist meadows, riverbanks, swales, ditches, and open savannas
- Diet
- Autotroph (photosynthesis via C4 pathway)
- Range
- Eastern United States, Central United States, Mexico, Central America, South America
- Size
- 1.5–3 m tall, forming clumps up to 1.2 m wide
- Lifespan
- 20–50 yr
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Overgrazing by livestock, agricultural conversion of native prairies, and habitat fragmentation
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless to humans. It has no venom, thorns, or irritants, though dried leaf margins can cause minor paper-like cuts if pulled against skin. No special distance or precautions are needed.
Tripsacum dactyloides , commonly called eastern gamagrass , is a warm-season, sod-forming bunch grass native to the eastern United States. Gamagrass is a distant relative of the corn species ( Zea mays ) and, like corn, the male part of the plant is above the female part. The joints of the seed-bearing part of the plant break when the plant is developed and each seed-bearing part contains one seed.
Photo: samlutfy, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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