Grass or grass-like · Poaceae
Eastern gamagrass
Tripsacum dactyloides
Eastern gamagrass is recorded as native to 30 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 724 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Key facts · USDA PLANTS
Eastern gamagrass at a glance
- Native in
- 724 counties, across 30 states and territories
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 5a PLANTS minimum temperature −23°F
- Mature height
- 5 ft PLANTS mature height
- Light and water
- Full sun (shade-intolerant) High water use
Estimated cold hardiness: zone 5a. PLANTS gives a minimum temperature of −23°F; zone 5a winters bottom out at −20°F, the coldest half-zone that stays within that limit.
Eastern gamagrass is recorded as native to 30 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 724 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Counties where it is native
The 15 counties with the most ZIP codes among the 724 where it is listed.
Native counties by state
- Alabama 29 counties
- Arkansas 37 counties
- Connecticut statewide record
- Delaware 1 county
- District of Columbia 1 county
- Florida 40 counties
- Georgia 25 counties
- Illinois 31 counties
- Indiana 2 counties
- Iowa 9 counties
- Kansas 75 counties
- Kentucky 20 counties
- Louisiana 46 counties
- Maryland 1 county
- Massachusetts 3 counties
- Michigan 2 counties
- Mississippi 35 counties
- Missouri 46 counties
- Nebraska 4 counties
- New Jersey 11 counties
- New York 11 counties
- North Carolina 56 counties
- Oklahoma 27 counties
- Pennsylvania 8 counties
- Rhode Island 1 county
- South Carolina 25 counties
- Tennessee 30 counties
- Texas 70 counties
- Virginia 72 counties
- West Virginia 6 counties
Growing traits
Values from the PLANTS characteristics record. “Not recorded” means PLANTS has no value; nothing here is estimated except the zone.
Growth
- Growth habit
- Graminoid
- Duration
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 5 ft
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Growth form
- Bunch
- Shape
- Erect
- Lifespan
- Long
- Active growth period
- Spring and Summer
Light and water
- Shade tolerance
- Intolerant (full sun (shade-intolerant))
- Moisture use
- High water use
- Drought tolerance
- Low
- Tolerance of waterlogged soil
- Medium
- Precipitation range
- 16 to 60 in per year
Soil
- Soil textures
- Coarse, medium and fine
- pH range
- 5.1 to 7.5
- Lime (CaCO₃) tolerance
- None
- Salinity tolerance
- None
- Fertility requirement
- High
- Minimum root depth
- 20 in
Climate
- Minimum temperature
- −23°F
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 5a and warmer
- Minimum frost-free days
- 140
- Fire tolerance
- High
Flowers, leaves and fruit
- Flower color
- Yellow
- Showy flowers
- No
- Bloom period
- Early Summer
- Foliage color
- Green
- Showy in fall
- No
- Keeps leaves
- No
- Fruit color
- Brown
Other
- Toxicity
- None
- Nitrogen fixation
- None
- Nursery availability
- Routinely Available
- Family
- Poaceae
- PLANTS symbol
- TRDA3
Source & data date
- Source
- USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).
- Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.
- USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
- Citation
- USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.
- Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
- Data date
- Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
- Scope
- Tripsacum dactyloides (PLANTS symbol TRDA3).
- Method
- A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources