// SPECIES PROFILE · GRASS · NATIVE
Eastern Gamagrass
Tripsacum dactyloides
Eastern gamagrass is the closest wild relative of corn — a massive native bunchgrass that forms 6-foot mounds of broad coarse foliage topped with corn-like flowering spikes whose male and female flowers reveal the architecture corn was bred from over 9,000 years ago.
// QUICK FACTS
- Family
- Poaceae
- Group
- grass
- Native range
- E. & SE US incl. OK
- USDA hardiness
- Zones 5–9
- Mature size
- 4–8 ft
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Average to wet; tolerates flooding
- Wildlife value
- Critical wildlife cover; deer + cattle love the high-protein forage
- Ecological role
- ancient corn relative · massive prairie bunchgrass
