Rough dropseed is most palatable when young and green. Rough dropseed occurs throughout the United States on clayey to silty soils of prairies and sandy meadows. Fires usually consume dry vegetation to ground level. Burning of rough dropseed usually results in rapid combustion and little downward transfer of heat into belowground plant parts. During a fire these culms usually burn rapidly with little heat transfered downward into meristematic tissue.
Plants spread via seeds, tillers, and occasionally by short rhizomes.
It was found that species richness increased with increasing disturbance intensity. Burning bluestem range. Journal of Range Management. Distribution of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians by BLM physiographic regions and A.W. Kuchler's associations for the eleven western states. U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.