Andropogon gerardii
Family: Poaceae
Description: Plants are rhizomatous. Stems (collectively called culms) 1.5 m, glabrous (smooth/hairless) and occasionally glaucous (covered with a whitish or bluish waxy coating. Leaf blades 20-60 cm, 5-8 mm wide, flat (occasional folded), glabrous, but piloses (bearing minute, long, soft, straight hairs) proximally, margins scabrous-serrate, sheaths loose, glabrous. Racemes terminal, digitate; branches 3-6, 5-7 cm long, inflorescence axes hirsute-villous; spikelets paired at nodes.
Field Identification: Tall, robust growth-taller than a person’s head. Rapid Summer grower and flowers in late summer and early fall. Turkey foot arrangement of racemes in the seedhead. Warm season, native.
Location: Statewide except along the southwest part of Texas in counties along the Rio Grande.
Soil Type: Most soils
Trivia: One of the four tall grasses of the “Tall Grass Prairie.” State grass of Illinois.
Economic, Environmental Importance: Good forage for livestock, provides nesting sites for bobwhite quail and ground cover for birds and small mammals.
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