Tripsacum dactyloides (L.) L.

Eastern Gamma Grass; Eastern Mock Grama

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Eastern Gamma Grass is a native herbaceous perennial in the Grass family (Poaceae). It occurs in wet to mesic hardwood forests, along streams and ponds, in roadside ditches, in low pastures, and along forest edges. Eastern Gamma Grass can be found throughout Alabama. It is a large warm-season bunch grass from short knotty rhizomes. The culms are erect to arching and from 3-10 feet in height. Leaves are linear to lanceolate in outline, basal or alternate on the stems, flat, and glabrous. The midvein is large, conspicuous, and white in color. Leaf sheaths are open with a ciliate ligule. Flowers are produced in erect, terminal or axillary sub-digitate panicles of 1-3 racemes. Eastern Gamma Grass is monoecious, producing staminate and pistillate flowers on the same inflorescence. The staminate spikelets are produced above the pistillate spikelets. The pistillate spikelets are solitary and embedded in axis of the raceme. The inflorescence breaks apart into one-seeded sections. The fruit is a grain. The roots of Eastern Gamma Grass extend up to 8 feet into the ground. They are able to penetrate clay pans and help to break up compacted soils. The roots contain spongy channels known as aerenchyma that allow oxygen to reach the root tips in water logged soils. The roots have a mutualistic relationship with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that aid the plants in the uptake of nutrients, especially phosphorus. Eastern Gamma Grass foliage is very nutritious and is sometimes referred to as “Icecream Grass” due to its popularity with deer, elk, bison, and cattle. It is a larval food plant for the Byssus Skipper (Problema byssus). Eastern Gamma Grass is available as seed or plants. It is used as a pasture grass, for erosion control, and as an ornamental. It does well in rain gardens, along the edges of ponds and streams, in low meadows, and as a large accent plant at the back of a perennial border. Eastern Gamma Grass is distantly related to Corn (Zea mays), and hybrids have been prod

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Native FAC+ (NWPL)

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