Eastern Gamagrass

warm-season bunch grass native to the eastern United States and is still often found east of Kansas and Oklahoma. This highly productive grass is best adapted to wet habitats; and remnant colonies are commonly found in flood plains and along stream banks. Eastern gamagrass is a relative of field corn (Zea mays) and is characterized by numerous short, well-developed rhizomes. Lower culm internodes are short, resulting in most of the leaves originating from the base of the plant. Individual grass clumps can reach a diameter of 4 feet with seed heads growing on culms 3 to 9 feet tall (Figure 1). Although found extensively throughout the eastern United States at one time, eastern gamagrass is rarely found now in large natural stands. Tradition has it that eastern gamagrass was regarded as a highquality forage crop by early settlers, but native stands were destroyed to produce grain crops or grazed out by livestock. The native animals (buffalo and elk) that used this grass before European settlement were herd animals that grazed and then moved to fresh grass, not returning to an area they had grazed until plants had an opportunity to regrow. This rest period is critical to the survival of bunch grasses because they rely on carbohydrates stored in the leaf bases for regrowth. If animals are allowed to graze regrowth before carbohydrates can be stored, plants will soon succumb to overgrazing. The loss of natural stands of this highly palatable, productive grass has been attributed to overgrazing. Eastern gamagrass produces the majority of its growth from mid-April through mid-September. Eastern gamagrass begins growing earlier in the spring than do the other native grasses such as big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi) or switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). The distribution of eastern gamagrass yield throughout the summer makes this grass an excellent source of forage during the period of the year when cool-season grasses are relatively dormant (see Figure 2).