Gamagrass

Gamagrass is an indigenous warm season bunch grass once found in great abundance in the Midwest. The thick wide blades as well as its ability to penetrate deep in the soil even going through hard pan make it a valuable high protein forage grass for livestock. We found out about eastern gamagrass through a seed nut supplier of ours who was feeding it to buffalo and have since grown two selections -one from seed and another from cuttings.

'Pete' --USDA germplasm, this seed selection was a composite of plants found to be totally green and vigorous during the drought of 88. One of the finders of  this one plant described it as seeing a bright green spot where everything else was brown along road. Seeds were collected from this plant and others. Often these 'survivors' are the ones to carry forward. Pete is a tall vigorous plant to 4-6 ft. tall with wide blades.

'Great Feats'  Found as a chance seedling of a small plant with seed set on one year plants. Great Feats was named after the roots of this plant which are very thick and almost tuberous in nature. We believe this plant will be even more resistant to drought than other gamagrass. (Not many plant breeders pay attention to the roots of the plants they are working on.)  Flowering and seed set seems to be heavier with this plant but it has not been compared yet to other clones. Blades are also wider. 

Gamagrass makes a great ornamental grass and stays green here in Michigan until October. We believe both Pete and Great Feats are one zone colder in hardiness as we winnowed the plants destroyed by minus 27F.